
fii 



L 



BIBLE5TDRY' 



IN 

Words. 

coPY*iOMTro 1892, 
bjM'LOUQHLlN BKO' 



J 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



Shelf „,.HSr -5 51 
fP>5 

I'N'ITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



IN EASY WORDS FOR CHILDREN. 




MRS. HELEN W. PIERSON 



CFP 10 1392 



AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF UNITED STATES," "HISTORY OF ENGLAND," ETC., ETC., ETC., IN WORDS OF 

ONE SYLLABLE. 



NEW YORK: 

MCLOUGHLIN BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. 



\^ A v 



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sp^^<0 



P R EF A CE 



It has not been thought advisable, in this story of the Bible, 
to adhere to words of one syllable quite so strictly as has been 
done in some other works. Simple and easy words have been 
used which a child can read, but in order to convey exact state- 
ments these words are sometimes of two syllables. 

The liberties taken with other histories cannot be taken with 
the Bible. In places where the exact words could be used, they 
have been used. Where they were difficult, they have been put 
in a simpler form, but it is hoped that the dignity and beauty 
of the words of Holy Writ have not been sacrificed. 

H. W. P. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter 


I. 


Chapter 


II. 


Chapter 


III. 


Chapter 


IV. 


Chapter 


V. 


Chapter 


VI. 


Chapter 


VII. 


Chapter 


VIII. 


Chapter 


IX. 


Chapter 


X. 


Chapter 


XI. 


Chapter 


XII. 


Chapter 


XIII. 


Chapter 


XIV. 


Chapter 


XV. 


Chapter 


XVI. 


Chapter 


XVII. 


Chapter 


XVIII. 


Chapter 


XIX. 


Chapter 


XX. 


Chapter 


XXI. 


Chapter 


XXII. 


Chapter 


XXIII. 


Chapter 


XXIV. 


Chapter 


XXV. 


Chapter 


XXVI. 


Chapter 


XXVII. 


Chapter 


XXVIII 


Chapter 


XXIX. 


Chapter 


XXX. 


Chapter 


XXXI. 


Chapter 


XXXII. 


Chapter 


XXXIII 


Chapter 


XXXIV. 


Chapter 


XXXV. 


Chapter 


XXXVI 



HOW GOD MADE THE WORLD. 

ABOUT THE ARK. 

ABRAHAM'S FAITH. — ISAAC WEDS REBECCA. . 
JACOB BLESSED BY ISAAC. — LEAH AND RACHEL- 
JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN 

HOW JOSEPH WAS MADE GREAT. 

DEATH OF JOSEPH 

THE STORY OF MOSES. — THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT 

HOW THEY CROSSED THE RED SEA. 

THE CALF OF GOLD. 

GOD GIVES MORE LAWS. . 

THEY DO NOT TRUST IN GOD 

THE DEATH OF MOSES. . 

THE SUN STANDS STILL. 

GIDEON AND THE FLEECE. 

JElTITHAIi'S DAUGHTER. 

THE STORY OF SAMSON. . 

THE STORY OF RUTH. . 

THE STORY OF SAMUEL. . 

SAUL AND DAVID. 

THE DEATH OF SAUL. 

DAVID IS MADE KING. 

THE REIGN OF SOLOMON. 

THE WIDOW'S OIL AND MEAL. 

THE STORY OF ELIJAH. . 

THE STORY OF ELISIIA. 

THE ISRAELITES HAVE TO GO OUT OK CANAAN 

GOOD AND BAD KINGS 

JERUSALEM IS LAID WASTE. . 

THE DRY BONES. — THE STORY OK DANIEL. 

THE WORDS ON THE WALL. . 

THE JEWS BUILD UP THE TEMPLE. 

THE STORY OF ESTHER 

THE PATIENT MAN 

THE STORY OF JONAH 

NEHEMIAH 



12 

20 

. 25 

J' 

38 

49 
52 
66 

75 
79 
84 

97 
102 
1 1 1 

117 
120 
127 
130 
137 
151 
156 
168 
i74 
179 
183 
193 
196 
200 
203 
208 
210 
212 
218 
220 
233 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



CHAPTER I. 

HOW GOD MADE THE WORLD. 



There was a time a great while a-go when there was 
no world, or sun, or moon and stars. All was dark. 

Then God said, " Let there be light ! " and there was light. 

He called the time when it was light, Day; and the 
time when it was dark, Night. 

God made these on the first day. 

The next day He made the sky and called it Heav-en. 

On the third day He made the Sea and the dry land. 
He called the dry land Earth, and He made the grass to 
grow on it and the flow-ers to bloom and trees to bear 
fruit. And each tree and flow-er bore seed that could be 
plant-ed so as to bring forth more of its kind. 

On the fourth day God made a great light which He 
set in the sky. He called it the Sun and it gives us light 
by day. He made the Moon and stars to shine at night. 

On the fifth day God made all the fish that swim in the 
sea and the birds that fly in the air. 

On the sixth day God made beasts of all the kinds that 
are on the earth, and all things that creep on the earth. 

And on this day, too, God made man. 

He made him king of all things that lived on the earth, 
ind gave him the fruit of the land for his food. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 




"then god said, 'let there be light. 



Then God rest-ed from His work on the sev-enth day, 
so it has been kept as a day of rest from that time. 

Man was made from the dust of the ground. God 
breathed in-to it the breath of life — and man lived. A 
gar-den was his home where all sorts of fruits qrew that 
were good to eat. There was a stream that flowed through 
the place and kept all green. 

God called the man's name Ad-am, and He told him 
that he could eat the fruit of all the trees in the gar-den 
of E-den but one tree. That was called the tree of "The 
Know-ledge of Good and E-vil. God said to Ad-am, "In 
the day thou eat-est of that fruit thou shalt sure-ly die. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



Then God saw that it was not good for the man to live 
a-lone and He made Ad-am fall in a deep sleep. 

While he slept God took a rib from his side and made 
a wo-man. He gave her to Ad-am for his wife, and her 
name was called Eve. 

And God sent all the beasts and the birds to Ad-am 
to be named by him. 

Now the e-vil one wished to tempt Eve to sin. So he 
took the form of a ser-pent, or snake. 

He said to Eve, "Yea! hath God said ye shall not eat 
of all the fruit of the gar-den?" 



||||1P 1 

MB tin . '-mm 




THE SIN Of AD-AM AND EVE. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



Eve said that they might eat of all the fruit but from 
one tree, and if they ate of that they would die. 

But Sa-tan said, " Ye shall not die, but ye will be wise 
as Qrods." 

So Eve looked at the tree and saw that the fruit was 
fair and orood. So she took some of it and ate it and grave 
some to Ad-am. 

Then they heard the voice of God, and they were 
a-fraid and hid in the trees. But God said, "Ad-am where 
art thou ?" 

And Ad-am came out and said, " I heard thee but I 
was a-fraid and hid." 

Then God said, " Hast thou eat-en of the fruit of that 
tree I for-bade thee to eat ? " 

And Ad-am said, "The wo-man gave it to me and I 
did eat." 

Then God said to Eve, "What is this that thou hast 
done ? " 

And Eve said, " The ser-pent tempt-ed me and I 
did eat." 

And God was wroth with them, and said that the ser- 
pent should be cursed. It would have to crawl in the 
dust all the days of its life. He drove Ad-am and Eve 
out of the gar-den, and set an-gels to keep watch with 
swords of fire that turned each way so that they could 
not go back. 

God told Eve that she should have much pain and 
sor-row in her life, and to Ad-am He said that the ground 
would not bear fruit a-ny more for him un-less he worked 



THE BIBLE STORY. 






hard, and that when he died his bod-y would go back to 
dust like the dust out of which the Lord had made him. 
So the two went out in-to the world. God gave them 
coats made out of the skins of an-i-mals to keep them 
from the cold. 




AD-AM AND EVE DRIV-KN FROM THE CAR-DEN. 



They had two sons born to them. The eld-est was 
named Cain and the oth-er A-bel. 

Cain tilled the ground and raised fruit, but A-bel kept 
sheep. 

And A-bel loved God and sought to mve the best of 
his flock to him, but Cain's heart was hard, and though 



IO 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



he brought the fruit of his land he did not do it with love. 
God said to Cain that if he did right he would be pleased 
with him, but if he would not the fault was his own. 

So Cain grew to hate A-bel, and one day when they 
were out in the field he killed him, and his blood stained 
the ground. 

When God called to Cain "Where is A-bel,? "Cain said 
u I know not. Am I my broth-er's keep-er ? " 

Then God said, " What hast thou done ? The voice of 
thy broth-er's blood cri-eth to me from the ground ! " 

And God told Cain that for this sin he should have no 
home on the earth, no place where he could stay long, but 
he must move on and on till he died. 




THE FRUITS OF SIN. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



1 1 




CAIN AND A-BEL OF-FER-ING THEIR GIFTS TO GOD. 



Then Cain said, "That is more than I can bear. The 
hand of all men will be a-gainst me, and they will kill me." 

But God set a mark on his fore-head so that all would 
know who he was and his life should be safe. 

Ad-am and Eve lived a long time and they had more 
chil-dren. In those days men lived much long-er than 
they do now. 

Ad-am lived nine hun-dred and thir-ty years. Then 
his bod-y went to dust a-gain — as God had said. 

The name of one of the men who lived in those days 
was E-noch. It is told of him that he walked with God. 
This means that the thought of God's love for him was in 
his heart all the time. E-noch did not die like all oth-cr 
men. God took him right up to Hcav-cn a-live. E-noch 



i2 THE BIBLE STORY. 



had a son named Me-thu-se-lah who was the old-est man 
that ev-er lived. When he died he was nine hun-dred 
and six-ty-nine years old. 



CHAPTER II. 

A-BOUT THE ARK. 

In time the men in the world grew so full of sin that 
God said He would sweep them from the face of the 
earth. 

But there was a good man named No-ah that God loved. 
So He told him of the great flood He meant to send to 
wash the world clean once more. 

He want-ed to save No-ah so He told him to build an 
ark — a sort of house that could float on the wa-ter. He 
said that No-ah might save his own chil-dren, and take 
two of all kinds of beasts and birds and in-sects in-to the 
ark. All that were left would be drowned. 

It took a long time to build the ark, for it was three 
stories hio-h and of a great size. When it was done 
No-ah went in with his wife and three sons and their 
wives. All the beasts and birds and in-sects were tak-en 
in, two by two, and shut in safe. 

Then it be-gan to rain, and did not stop for for-ty days 
and nights. All the land was covered, and at last there 
was not a green thing to be seen. Ev-er-y liv-ing thing 
on the face of the earth was drowned. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 




BUILP-1NG THE ARK. 



But Noah and all those in the ark were safe and at last 
the wa-ter be-gan to leave the earth. 

The tops of mount-ains could be seen and the ark rest-ed 
on one called Ar-a-rat. No-ah and those with him had 
lived in the ark five months and they had to stay two 
months more. Then No-ah let a ra-ven go out, but it 
did not come back. 

The next bird he sent was a dove, but she found no 
place to rest and so she came back to him. He wait-ed 
a week and sent her out once more. This time she came 



i4 



THE BIBLE STORY 



back with an ol-ive leaf in her bill. Then Noah knew 
that the wa-ters must have gone down and that the ground 
would soon be dry. He wait-ed one week more and sent 
out the dove. She did not come back, so he was sure she 
had found a dry place and that it was safe for all to go 
out of the ark. When they were all on dry ground No-ah 
built an al-tar to God, and of-fered up an-i-mals and birds 
on it, to show his thanks to the Lord who had saved them 
from the great flood. 

And God loved No-ah and told him he might be mas- 




AFT-ER THE FLOOD. 



THE BIBLE STORY. i5 

ter of all liv-ing things and kill what was good for food. 
He said that He would send no more floods, and as a 
pledge of this He set a sign in the sky that would come 
aft-er a rain. It is what is called a rain-bow. 

No-ah lived a long time aft-er the flood. He was nine 
hun-dred and fif-ty years old when he died. 

No-ah's sons had chil-dren and these in turn grew up 
and had. sons and daugh-ters so that the world grew full of 
peo-ple in time. They sinned and did not fear God. They 
all spoke one lan-guage in those days, and they went to 
work to build a high tow-er on a plain called Shi-nar. 
They thought per-haps if a new flood came they could be 
safe from God's wrath on it. 

But when God saw it He was wroth and He made them 
all at once speak in strange tongues, so they could not go 
on. No one knew what the oth-er meant and the work 
had to be stopped. The tow-er they tried to build was 
called from that day the tow-er of Ba-bel. 

Long years aft-er there lived a man in the land -of Ur 
called A-bram. God told him to leave his home, and 
though he did not know where he was to go, he took his 
wife and his broth-er's son, Lot, and set out for the land 
where God was to lead him. God took care of him on 
the way and gave him the land called Ca-naan to be his 
and his chil-dren's. He had herds of sheep and cows, 
and was a rich man. But they did not live in hous-es in 
those days. They put up tents and let the sheep and 
cows graze on the grass in one place till it was all gone 
and then they moved on. 



16 THE BIBLE STORY. 

They had hercls-men to take care of the flocks, and these 
men did not live in peace, so A-bram said to Lot that he 
could choose what part of the land he would like to live 
in and he would go some-where else. 

So Lot chose a plain through which the Jor-dan flowed. 
There was a cit-y there named Sod-om which was full of 
bad men. Lot thought he could still serve God and live 
with these bad men, and grow more rich. 

The Lord told A-bram that the land as far as he could 
see should be his own. 

A-bram built three al-tars to the Lord to show his love 
for Him. 

It came to pass that four kings who ruled in the parts 
near Sod-om, went to war with that cit-y, and took it and 
all that was in it. Lot was seized with the rest and held 
as a slave. When A-bram heard this he called his men 
and came up to the four kings and their troops and fought 
them. God helped him to win the fight, and Lot and all 
the rest were set free, and all the gold and gems fell in-to 
A-bram's hands. He did not keep it for him-self though, 
but gave it all to those who had helped him in the fight. 

A-bram had no child and God said He would give 
him a son. He told A-bram to look up at the stars and 
see if he could count them, and He said his chil-dren's 
chil-dren should be like those stars, they would be so 
ma-ny. Some of them would be kings. And He called 
his name A-bra-ham, which means " Fa-ther of ma-ny 
peo-ple." 

A-bra-ham was sit-ting in his tent door one day, when 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



17 



he saw three men i\ear him. He bowed down to them, 
as was the way in those days, and asked them to rest, and 
brought wa-ter to wash their feet. There were no shoes 
in those days, but peo-ple wore things like the soles of our 
shoes strapped to their feet. So it was the cus-tom to give 
the guest a chance to bathe his feet. 

A-bra-ham brought them bread too, and told Sa-rah 
his wife to bake some cakes. Then he took a calf and 
had it killed, and set all be-fore the. men and they ate. 
When they were done they walked on to Sod-om and 
A-bra-ham went with them. 




LOT FLIF.S FROM SOD-OM 



i8 THE BIBLE STORY. 

But we are told that these were not mere men. Two 
were an-gels, and one was the Lord, who took the form 
of man. 

He talked with A-bra-ham and told him that He meant 
to burn the cit-ies of Sod-om and Go-mor-rah for the sin 
in them. Now Lot lived in Sod-om and A-bra-ham feared 
that he would lose his life. So he spoke to the Lord and 
said that it might be there were good men in the place. 
The Lord said if there were ten eood men in it He would 
not burn it. 

Lot sat at the gate of Sod-om that night, and the two 
an-gels in the form of men came to him and told him that 
if he had sons and daugh-ters he must take them and fly, 
for the Lord meant to burn Sod-om. But Lot's sons 
would not hear him and he had to leave them. The 
an-gels told him he must go at once, and make great haste. 
So Lot went with his wife and two daueh-ters. But as 
they went forth Lot's wife looked back on Sod-om, which 
she had been told not to do, and so she died, and was 
turned in-to a pil-lar of salt. 

When A-bra-ham looked in the morn-ing he saw a great 
smoke where the two cit-ies had been, and he knew that 
there had not been found ten good men in Sod-om. 

God gave to A-bra-ham and his wife a son, and they 
called his name I-saac. When he had grown a large boy 
they made a feast for him one day. One of his wife, 
Sa-rah's, maids whose name was Ha-gar had a son too, 
called Ish-ma-el. This boy mocked at I-saac, and Sa-rah 
said he must go a-way. A-bra-ham called Ha-gar and 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



*9 




HA-GAR GOES FORTH WITH HER SON. 



told her and gave her some bread and a bot-tle of wa-ter. 
The bot-tles then were made of skins of beasts. 

Ha-gar went forth with her boy. When all the wa-ter 
was gone, she saw her child grow weak and she thought 
he would die. She laid him in the shade and went a-way 
to weep. She could not bear to see her boy die. 

The an-gel of God heard her and told her not to fear, 
but to take up Ish-ma-el and hold him in her arms. Then 
she saw all at once a well near her, and she gave the child 
a drink, and he grew well and strong. 



2o THE BIBLE STORY. 



CHAPTER III. 

A-BRA-HAMS FAITH. I-SAAC WEDS RE-BEK-AH 

One day God called A-bra-ham, and he said, " Here 
am I." 

And God said, "Take now thy son, thine on-ly son, 
I-saac, whom thou lov-est, and get thee to the land of 
Mar-ah, and of-fer him up to me on one of the moun-tains 
I will tell thee of." 

Did not that seem a hard thing that A-bra-ham was 
asked to do — to kill his own son and lay him on an al-tar, 
and put wood un-der it and set it on fire, and burn him 
as he had done with the young lambs he of-fered to God ? 
But he did not think that God would harm him. He had 
faith in Him. He knew He had done him good all the 
days of his life. So he rose up in the morn-ing and took 
two men with the wood all cut to lay on the al-tar. He 
called his son I-saac and they set out for the place. When 
it was in sight, he left the two men and went on with his 
son. The boy took the wood and A-bra-ham had the fire 
and a knife in his hand. 

I-saac did not know what was to be done. He asked, 
" Fa-ther, you have the fire and the wood, but where is 
the lamb ?'' 

A-bra-ham said, " My son, God will find a lamb." So 
they came to the place God had told him of, and A-bra- 
ham built the al-tar and put the wood on it. Then he 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



21 



bound his son and laid him on the wood and stretched 
out his hand for the knife. 

But just then the an-gel of the Lord called to him and 
he said, " Here am I." 

And the an-gel said, " Lay not thine hand up-on the lad, 
for now I know that thou dost fear God, since thou hast 
not kept back thy son, thine on-ly son." 




"and the an-gel said, 'lay not thine hand up-on the lad. 

And A-bra-ham saw a ram that was caught fast in the 
bush-es by his horns, and he took it and put it on the 
al-tar and of-fercd it up in the place of his son. 



22 THE BIBLE STORY. 

p 

And God was pleased with him, and said that in his 
seed all the na-tions of the earth should be blessed. By 
this he meant that Christ should be born of the tribe of 
A-bra-ham, to save men from their sins. 

1 hen Sa-rah, the wife of A-bra-ham, died, and he 
mourned for her, and asked for a place where she might 
be bur-ied. The. pla-ces where the dead were bur-ied in 
those days were caves cut out of the rock. A great stone 
was placed at the door to shut it up. A man named 
E-phron came and said he would give his cave to A-bra- 
ham. But A-bra-ham bought the field and cave from 
him and there he bur-ied Sa-rah. 

He was an old man then and his son I-saac was grown. 
He did not wish him to take a wife who did not love the 
true God, but bowed down to gods of wood and stone. 
So he sent a man to his own land to bring back a wife 
for his son. 

The man, who had the care of A-bra-ham's herds, took 
ten cam-els and some rich gifts and set out for the land to 
which he had been sent. When he got to a well near a 
town in that land, he made the cam-els kneel down so that 
he could take off their loads and let them rest. 

The wo-men of the place used to come to that well to 
draw wa-ter, and the man prayed to God to help him 
choose the right one to be I-saac's wife. He thought he 
would ask for a drink of wa-ter to see which one would 
be the most kind. While he prayed, a young girl named 
Re-bek-ah came with a pitch-er and filled it at the well. 
Then the ser-vant ran and met her and said, " Give me, I 



THE BIBLE STORY, 



pray, a drink out of thy pitch-er." She said, " Drink and 
I will draw wa-ter for thy cam-els too." 

So she ran to the well and drew wa-ter for them. Then 
the man took ear-rings of gold and brace-lets and gave 
them to Re-bek-ah. He asked her of her home and if 
there was room there for him to stay with his men. She 
said that her fa-ther's name was Be-thu-el and that he 
could stay at their house. Then the man knew she was 
kin to A-bra-ham. 

Re-bek-ah ran home and told of all these things. When 
her broth-er La-ban heard it he went out and found the 
man still at the well. He asked him to come to their house 
and the man did so. They gave him straw and food for 
his cam-els, and set out food for the men with him to eat. 
But the ser-vant of A-bra-ham would not eat till he told 
them why he had come in-to their land. He told them 
how God had blessed A-bra-ham and made him rich and 
great. He spoke of his son I-saac, and how he wished 
to find a wife for him who loved God, and how he had 
prayed to know the right one to choose. He then asked 
if they would let Re-bek-ah go home with him to be 
I-saac's wife. They said that if it was the will of God 
she miorht cfo. The ser-vant knelt down and thanked God. 
Then he brought out the gifts of gold and sil-ver and gave 
them to Re-bek-ah and her friends. When this was done 
they all ate and drank and they slept at La-ban's house 
that night. 

At first Re-bek-ah's friends did not wish to part with 
her for a few days. But the man begged them to let her 



«4 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



go with him at once. She was called and she said, " I will 
go." So they set out and rode on the cam-els till they 
came to the land of Ca-naan. 




I-SAAC AND RE-BEK-AH. 



The sun was just set-ting as they reached there. I-saac 
had gone out in the field to walk and as he looked up he 
saw the cam-els. Re-bek-ah asked the ser-vant who the 
man was that was com-ingr to meet them. He said it was 
I-saac. So Re-bek-ah got down off her cam-el and met 
I-saac and he led her to the tent. He took her for his 
wife and loved her all the days of his life. 

Then A-bra-ham died and was bur-ied in the cave 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



where his wife slept, and all his rich-es were left to his 
son, I-saac. 

God gave I-saac and Re-bek-ah two sons. E-sau was 
the first born and Ja-cob was the young-er. In those 
days the first born had a right to more than all the rest. 
'He had a right to twice as much of the wealth his 
fa-ther might leave when he died, and this was called 
his birth-right . 

E-sau was fond of the hunt, but Ja-cob stayed at home 
and tend-ed the flocks. 

One day Ja-cob had made some food called pot-tage. 
E-sau came in ver-y faint and hun-gry and asked for some. 
Ja-cob told him he would give him some if he would sell 
him his birth right. E-sau said, " I am at the point to die, 
so what good shall this birth rio-ht do me." So he sold it. 
This was wrong in E-sau, and it was a sin too for Ja-cob 
to take it from him. 



CHAPTER IV. 



JA-COB BLESSED BY I-SAAC. LE-AH AND RA-CHEL. 

There came a time when food was scarce in the land 
of Ca-naan, and I-saac moved to a new place called Ge-rar. 
There he sowed seed, and the Lord blessed the land so 
that it brought forth large crops for him, and he grew 
rich and great. 

But the king of the land would not let him stay there. 



26 THE BIBLE STORY. 

So he took his wife and his herds and moved on and found 
the wells his fa-ther had dug when he camped at that 
place. And the Lord told I-saac not to fear, for He 
would take care of him and bless him. 

E-sau took for his wife a wo-man of Ca-naan who did 
not pray to the true God, but bowed down to gods of 
wood and stone. Now I-saac was an old man and he 
thought his death was near. So he called E-sau one day 
and told him to go out and kill a deer, and cook part 
of it and brinQf it to him to eat. Then he said he would 
bless him be-fore he died. 

Now Re-bek-ah heard this and she loved Ja-cob the 
most. So when E-sau had gone to the hunt, she made 
haste and took two kids and cooked them. Then she told 
Ja-cob to put on some of E-sau's clothes and take the food 
to his fa-ther. 

I-saac's sight was dim, so that he could not tell which 
of his sons had brought him the food. Ja-cob said he 
was E-sau, and so his fa-ther blessed him, and told him he 
should be lord, and all should serve him and bow down 
to him. When Ja-cob had gone, E-sau came in from the 
hunt, and I-saac asked, "Who art thou?" 

E-sau said, " I am thy son, thy first born, E-sau." 

I-saac shook with fear, "Who is it that brought the food 
to me that I have eat-en? I have blessed him, and he shall 
be blessed." 

And E-sau wept and cried, " Bless me too, my fa-ther." 
And I-saac did bless him, but the best things had been 
giv-en to Ja-cob and he could not take them from him. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



2/ 




JA-COB IS BLESSED BY I-SAAC. 



It was a great sin for Ja-cob to do this thing, and for 
his moth-er to help him. E-sau hat-ed his broth-er for 
this, and thought he would kill him as soon as his fa-ther 
died. Re-bek-ah feared this, so she sent for Ja-cob and 
told him to go to her old home, where he could find a wife. 

So Ja-cob set out on the road, and when the sun was 
set he stopped to rest. He lay clown on the ground and 
slept, and dreamed that he saw a lad-der that reached up 
to Heav-en, and an-gels went up and down on it. The 
Lord told him He would give him the land of Ca-naan, 
and bring him back safe. When Ja-cob woke he gave 



3 8 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



thanks to the Lord, and called that place Beth-el, which 
means, "The House of God." 

And Ja-cob said that if the Lord would take care of 
him, he would serve Him all his life and give a tenth part 
of all he had to Him. By this he meant that he would 
use a tenth part of his wealth for the sick and poor, and 
to raise al-tars to God. 

Then Ja-cob went on to the place where La-ban lived. 
He stopped at a well in a field where there were some 
shep-herds with their sheep. Ja-cob asked them if they 
knew a man named La-ban. They said they knew him 




JA-COB S DREAM. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 29 

well, and that his daugh-ter Ra-chel was com-ing just then 
with his sheep. 

Ja-cob ran to the well and drew the wa-ter for Ra-chel's 
sheep, and spoke to her and told her who he was. 

She made haste home and told her fa-ther, and he came 
out to meet Ja-cob. He took him to his home and beg- 
ged him to stay there. He said he would pay him if he 
would stay with him and take care of his flocks. Ja-cob 
told him he would work for him sev-en years if at the 
end of them he would give him Ra-chel for his wife. 
La-ban said he would and Ja-cob stayed and worked for 
sev-en years. He loved Ra-chel so much that the time 
did not seem long. 

But when the end of the sev-en years came, La-ban did 
not keep his word. He said he would not give him Ra- 
chel un-less he worked for him sev-en years more ; for it 
was the way in that land for the eld-est to mar-ry first. 
Now Le-ah, his first born, was not so fair as Ra-chel, but 
Ja-cob took her for his wife Then La-ban gave him 
Ra-chel, and he worked for him sev-en years more. 

At the end of this time Ja-cob wished to go home, but 
La-ban told him the Lord had blessed him so much while 
he had been with him that he did not want him to go. 
He asked. Ja-cob what he could give him to make him 
stay. Ja-cob told him if he would give him a share in the 
herds and flocks he would stay for a time. 

Now Ja-cob's flock grew to be a great ma-ny and he 
was so rich that La-ban's sons did not like it. They said 
he had crown rich from their fa-ther's cat-tie. La-ban was 

o 



30 



THE BIBLE STORY. 




BKAUN » YcHNi-IDia. 



JA-COB AND RA-CHEL AT THE WELL. 

changed too and was not kind, so God told Ja-cob to go 
back to his own land. He said He would take care of 
him and keep him safe. 

So Ja-cob told his wives, and they said he must do as 
the Lord bade him. He had cam-els brought and put his 
wives and chil-dren on them, and he took his flocks and 
herds and all that he owned and set out for Ca-naan. 
La-ban did not know at first that he had gone, but some 
one told him on the third day. So he rose up and took 
some men with him to go and find Ja-cob. He was an-gry 
but God spoke to him in a dream and told him he must 
not harm Ja-cob. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



He did not find him for sev-en days. When he met 
him and asked him why he had gone in that way, Ja-cob 
told him he feared he would keep Ra-chel and Le-ah if he 
knew. He told how long he had served in the heat and 
cold, and said that if God had not helped him, La-ban 
would not have paid him for the work. 

Then La-ban said they would be friends, and they 
piled up a heap of stones in that place, which was to stay 
there al-ways to keep them in mind of what they had 
said. And Ja-cob built an al-tar there and he and La-ban 
Drayed to God. 

Then La-ban kissed his chil-dren and went back to his 
own home. That place was called Mount Gil-e-ad. 



CHAPTER V. 



JO-SEPH AND HIS BRETH-REN. 



When Ja-cob came near to the place where E-sau 
lived he sent word to him. He thought of his sin a-gainst 
E-sau when they were young, and he feared to meet his 
brother. 

The ser-vants came back and told him that E-sau was 
com-ing to meet him with four hun-dred men. '1 hen 
Ja-cob was in great fear, for he thought E-sau meant to 
kill him. 

He prayed to God to keep him safe. At night, an 
an-gel came and wrest-led with him till break of day, but 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



could not over-come him. And when morn came, the 
an-gel said, " Let me go, for it is break of day." Ja-cob 
said, " I will not let thee go till thou bless me." Then the 
an-gel blessed him, and he saw him no more. This was a 
sign from God to Ja-cob that as he was a match for an 
an-gel, he need not fear men. 




JA-COB WRES-TLING WITH THE AN-GEL. 



He took some of his cat-tie and sent them as a gift to 
E-sau. He set them in droves so that when E-sau met 
them and asked whose they were, the man should say, 
"They are Ja-cob's. It is a gift he has sent to my lord 
E-sau." Each man who drove the cat-tie was to an-swer 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



33 



in this way, so that E-sau might feel that Ja-cob had come 
as a friend. 

All at once Ja-cob looked up and saw E-sau com-ing. 
Then he called his e-lev-en sons with Ra-chel and Le-ah 
to cro with him and meet E-sau. But he went first. 

When he met E-sau he bowed down to the ground 
sev-en times. Then E-sau ran to him and put his arms 
round his neck and kissed him and they both wept. 

E-sau saw the wo-men and chil-dren, and asked, "Who 
are these ?" 

Ja-cob said, " These are my wives and the chil-dren 




THE MEET-ING OF JA-COB AND E-SAU. 



34 THE BIBLE STORY. 

God has giv-en me." Then E-sau asked Ja-cob what he 
meant by all the cat-tie he had met on the way. Ja-cob 
said that they were a gift to him. But E-sau told him he 
was rich and did not need gifts. Still Ja-cob begged him 
to take them, and at last he did so. 

Then E-sau said he would stay with Ja-cob and go on 
with him a lit-tle way. But Ja-cob told him he could not 
trav-el fast as the chil-dren were young and that it would 
be best for E-sau to q-q first and he would come on as he 
could. 

Then E-sau wished to leave some of his men to help 
him, but Ja-cob did not need them. 

When Ja-cob reached the land of Ca-naan, God told 
him to to to Beth-el and build an al-tar. Beth-el was the 
place where he had dreamed of the an-gels that went up 
and down the lad-der. 

So Ja-cob told his wives of all the Lord had done for 
him, and they went with him to Beth-el and built the al-tar 
and praised God. 

And God spoke to Ja-cob, and blessed him, and said, 
"Thy name shall not be called Ja-cob a-ny more but Is-ra-el 
shall be thy name." 

Ja-cob set up a pil-lar in Beth-el to mark the place where 
God had talked with him. 

Then they left Beth-el and came near a place called 
Beth-le-hem, where God gave Ja-cob a son who was 
named Ben-ja-min. But Ra-chel died there and was 
buried. Ja-cob set up a pil-lar to mark the grave, and it 
stood there for a lono; time. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 35 

Ja-cob found that his fa-ther still lived in He-bron. It 
had been ma-ny years since the day I-saac had blessed 
Ja-cob in the place of E-sau, yet God had kept him a-live 
till he saw his son once more. He died when he was 
a hun-dred and eigh-ty years old, and he was laid to rest 
in the same cave in which A-bra-ham and Sa-rah were 
buried. 

E-sau took his wives and chil-dren and went to the land 
of E-dom. 

Now Ja-cob lived in the land of Ca-naan that God 
gave to his fa-ther. 

And he had twelve sons. The youn-gest was Ben-ja-min. 
Jo-seph was next to him, and Ja-cob loved him be-cause 
he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of 
ma-ny col-ors. When his broth-ers saw that their fa-ther 
loved him so much they hat-ed him. He had seen them 
do wrong and told his fa-ther and this made them hate 
him the more. Once Jo-seph had a strange dream, and 
he told his broth-ers. He said, "We were bind-ing sheaves 
in the field, and lo! my sheaf a-rose and stood up-right, 
and your sheaves bowed down to my sheaf." 

Then his broth-ers were in a rage, and they said, "Shalt 
thou reign over us ? " and they hat-ed him all the more for 
his dreams. Still when he dreamed once more he told 
them of it. He said, " I dreamed the sun and moon and 
e-lev-en stars bowed down to me." 

Now there were e-lev-en of the broth-ers, and they 
thought Jo-seph meant them by the e-lev-en stars, and that 
the moon and sun were his fa-ther and moth-er. His 



\6 THE BIBLE STORY. 



3 



fa-ther said, " Shall I and thy moth-er and thy breth-ren 
bow down to thee to the earth?" 

Now Jo-seph's broth -ers went with their flocks to 
She-chem. 

And Jo-seph's fa-ther said to him, "Go I pray thee and 
see if it be well with thy breth-ren, and well with the 
flocks, and bring me word." 

Joseph could not find them at first till he met a man 
who told him they had gone on to Do-tham. 

The broth-ers saw him when he was far off and they 
made a plot to kill him. 

They said, " See this dream-er com-eth. Come, now, let 
us slay him and cast him in a pit, and we will say some 
e-vil beast has eat-en him, and we shall see what will come 
of his dreams." 

But Reu-ben said, "Let us not kill him but cast him in 
the pit and leave him there." Now Reu-ben meant to 
save the boy's life. So when Jo-seph reached the place, 
they seized him and stripped off the coat of ma-ny col-ors 
and cast him in the pit. It was a dry pit so the boy was 
not drowned. 

Then they sat down to eat. They did not care for the 
boy's fright or pain. As they ate they saw some men ride 
near on cam-els. These were Ish-ma-el-ites and they came 
from Gil-e-ad with spice and balm and myrrh which they 
meant to sell in E-gypt. 

Then Ju-dah said, "Why should we leave the lad in 
the pit when we can get gold for him. ? Let us sell him 
to these men." 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



37 




BJL4UHASCHNDDE&. 



JO-SEPH SOLD BY HIS BRETH-REN. 



So they sold Jo-seph for twen-ty pie-ces of sil-ver. 

Now Reu-ben was not with them when they sold the 
boy, and when he came back and went to the pit to take 
him out, he found that he was gone. 

Then Reu-ben was in great grief, and he rent his clothes 
and cried, "The child is not, and I, whith-er shall I go?" 

Then they took Jo-seph's coat and killed a goat and 
dipped the coat in the blood. And they showed the coat 
to their fa-ther and said, "This have we found, Know 
now if it be thy son's coat or no." 



3 8 THE BIBLE STORY. 

And he knew it and said, "It is my son's coat." 
And he thought some wild beast had killed him. 
And he rent his clothes and mourned for his son a long 
time. The men in those days wore a long coat made of 
lin-en. It was made fast at the waist with a belt. When 
in great grief they rent or tore this coat, and put on a 
coarse kind of robe made of a cloth called sack-cloth, to 
show their sor-row — just as peo-ple now put on black 
clothes when they mourn for the dead. 



CHAPTER VI. 

HOW JO-SEPH WAS MADE GREAT. 

Now the Ish-ma-el-ites took the boy Jo-seph down to 
E-gypt. The King of that land was Pha-raoh, but the 
man who was at the head of all his house was named 
Pot-i-phar. Pot-i-phar bought Jo-seph and took him in 
his house to serve him. And the Lord blessed him so 
that Pot-i-phar trust-ed him. 

But Pot-i-phar's wife told what was not true of Jo-seph, 
so that, through no fault of his own, he was thrown in 
pris-on. The Lord still took care of him, and the keep-er 
of the pris-on was his friend, and gave him charge of all 
the rest of the men who were there. Then there were two 
new men cast in the pris-on. They were the chief ba-ker 
and the chief but-ler to the king. 

Now each of these men dreamed a dream the same 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



night, and in the morn-ing they looked sad. Jo-seph asked 
them, "Why look ye so?" and they told him their dreams. 

The chief but-ler, whose task it was to serve the king 
with wine, said, " I thought I saw a vine, and on the vine 
were three branch-es. And while I looked there came 
out buds that soon changed to bunch-es of grapes. And I 
pressed out the grapes in Pha-raoh's wine cup, and gave 
him the juice to drink." . 

So God showed Jo-seph what this dream meant, and he 
told the man. He said the three branch-es meant three 
days, and that in three days he would leave the pris-on 
and go back to his place. Then he asked the man to 
speak a good word for him when he went to serve Pha- 
raoh once more. 

The chief ba-ker then told Jo-seph his dream. He 
said he thought he had three bas-kets on his head. In 
the top bas-ket were all kinds of cooked meats, and the 
birds flew down and eat them. Jo-seph told him that the 
three bas-kets meant three days. He said that in three 
days he would be hung on a tree, and the birds would 
come and eat his flesh. This came true. In three days 
the king made a great feast on his birth day, and he sent 
for the chief but-ler and let him serve the wine as he. had 
done. But he had the chief ba-ker hanged. 

Now the chief but-ler did not think of Jo-seph or speak 
of him to Pha-raoh when he got back to his place. So 
Jo-seph was left in pris-on two years. 

Then Pha-roah dreamed a dream. He thought he saw 
a riv-er, and sev-en cows came up out of it. They were 



40 THE BIBLE STORY. 

fat and fine and they ate grass in a field. Then came up 
sev-en thin, poor cows, and they seemed to eat up the 
sev-en fat ones. 

He slept and dreamed once more. He saw sev-en ears 
of corn that grew on one stalk. They were plump and 
good. Then he saw sev-en bad ears that were not fit to 
eat, and these ate up the sev-en good ones. 

When it was day, he sent and called for all the wise 
men of the land ; but they could not tell him what was 
meant by his dream. 

Then the chief but-ler thought of Jo-seph. He said to 
the king that when he was in pris-on there was a young 
man who had told him and the ba-ker what their dreams 
meant, and what he said had come true. 

So Pha-raoh sent and called Jo-seph. He made haste 
and came to the king. Pha-raoh told him he had dreamed 
a dream and no one could tell what was meant, and he 
had heard of him that he knew how to read dreams. 
Jo-seph said that it was not he, but God who would tell 
him what he want-ed to know. So the king told his two 
dreams. 

Then Jo-seph said that the Lord had made known by 
these two dreams what he meant to do. The sev-en good 
cows, and the sev-en good ears of corn, meant sev-en good 
years in the land, when the crops would grow well. Then 
the sev-en bad cows and bad ears of corn meant sev-en 
years when food would be scarce in the land. 

So Jo-seph said that Pha-raoh should look for a wise 
man, who would see that the corn was stored up in the 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



4i 




JO-SEPH IN-TER-PRET-ING DREAMS. 

sev-en good years, that the peo-ple might not starve in the 
time when food should be scarce. Pha-raoh thought that 
Jo-seph was just the right man to do this and he gave 
him the place. 

So Jo-seph was a great man in the land, for the king 
took a gold ring off his own hand and put it on him, and 
put a rich robe on him and a gold chain on his neck and 
made him ride next to him. And as he rode all cried, 
" Bow the knee ! " So he ruled over all the land of 
E-gypt. 

Jo-seph was thir-ty years old at this time, and the king 
gave him a wife named As-e-nath. He went through the 



42 THE BIBLE STORY. 

land and saw that the corn was stored so as to keep it 
safe till the sev-en bad years should come. 

God gave Jo-seph two sons, and their names were 
Ma-nas-seh and E-phra-im. 

Then the sev-en good years came to an end and the bad 
years be-gan. In all lands food was scarce, but in E-gypt 
there was bread. Jo-seph took corn from the store hous-es 
and sold it to the peo-ple, and when this was known in 
oth-er lands men were sent to buy food in E-gypt. 

Now Jo-seph's broth-ers still lived with their fa-ther 
in Ca-naan. They did not know what had be-come of 
Jo-seph, and they thought he was dead. Bread was scarce 
in their land, and they feared they would starve. They 
did not know what to do. 

But Ja-cob said, " I have heard there is corn in E-gypt 
— go down there and buy some for us that we may live 
and not die." 

So ten of them left their home, but Ben-ja-min, the 
youn-gest, stayed with his fa-ther. 

Now Jo-seph ruled all the land of E-gypt. When men 
came to buy corn they had to see him first. So his 
broth-ers came and bowed down to him. Jo-seph knew 
them ; but they did not know him, for he had changed in 
the years since they had sold him. They did not dream 
that this great lord in his rich robes was the child they 
had thrown in the pit. 

Then Jo-seph spoke in a harsh way to them. " From 
whence do ye come?" he asked. They said, "We are 
come from the land of Ca-naan to buy food." 



THE BIBLE STORY. 43 

But Jo-seph said, " Ye are spies — ye have come to find 
out all a-bout the land." 

They said, " Nay, my lord, we are true men, we are 
not spies." 

Jo-seph did not want them to know him yet, so he 
seemed hard with them. They told him of their fa-ther, 
and Ben-ja-min, the one at home. One, they said, was 
not. By this they meant one was dead. 

Jo-seph knew they spoke of him. 

Jo-seph said that one of them must go back and bring 
Ben-ja-min, and then he would know if they spoke the 
truth or not. Then they talked to one an-oth-er, and 
said that now God had done this to them for their sin 
when they had cast Jo-seph in the pit. 

Reu-ben said to them, " Did I not say, do not sin 
a-gainst the child, and ye would not hear me." 

Jo-seph heard them, for they thought he could not 
know what they said as he had spo-ken in E-gyp-tian. 
And he had to go from them and weep, for he loved 
them in spite of the wrong they had done him. But he still 
seemed to think they were spies. At last he said that all 
might go home but one. He kept Sim-e-on, and bound 
him, and he was to stay till they brought back Ben-ja-min. 

He gave them sacks full of corn to take home, and put 
back their mon-ey in each sack. So they start-ed on the 
road home. When they stopped to rest, and one wished 
to give some food to his ass, he found the mon-ey. Then 
they were all in great fright, for they did not know how it 
had come there. 



44 THE BIBLE STORY. 

When they reached their home they told all to their 
fa-ther. How that the lord of the land had said they 
ivere spies, and they had told him they were true men, 
and all lived with their fa-ther in the land of Ca-naan 
where the youn-gest was with him. And how he had 
kept Sim-e-on as a pledge, and sent them home for Ben- 
ja-min, and had filled their sacks with corn and put their 
mon-ey in each sack. 

Ja-cob was grieved, and said that Sim-e-on was gone, 
and Jo-seph was gone, and now they want-ed to take 
Ben-ja-min. But Reu-ben said, " Slay my two sons if I 
do not bring Ben-ja-min safe back to thee." 

Still Ja-cob said he could not let him go. 

But bread grew more scarce in the land, and when all 
the corn was gone that they had brought in the sacks it 
seemed as if they must starve. So he said, " Go down 
in-to E-gypt and buy us some corn." 

But Ju-dah told him that if he would let Ben-ja-min go 
with them they would go. If not it was of no use to go, 
for the lord of the land had said, " Ye shall not see my 
face if your broth-er is not with you." 

Then Ja-cob asked them why they had told the man 
they had a broth-er at home. 

They said, "The man asked, Ts your fa-ther a-live, and 
have you an-oth-er broth-er?' How could we know he 
would say, ' Bring your broth-er down.' ' 

Then Ja-cob said if it must be so he would send a gift 
to the lord of the land. So he gave them a ht-tle balm 
and hon-ey and spice and nuts, and all the mon-ey they 



THE BIBLE STORY. 45 

had brought back in their sacks and as much more. And 
he prayed to God to keep them safe and make the man 
kind to them. 

So they took Ben-ja-min and went down to E-gypt. 
And when Jo-seph saw that the boy was with them, he 
said that they must all come to his house. Then they were 
in great fear that he meant to make them his slaves. 

They told the stew-ard who was at the door of Jo-seph's 
home how they had found the mon-ey in their sacks and 
had brought it back. 

But he told them not to fear and he brought them 
wat-er to bathe their feet. And Sim-e-on who had been 
left bound came and met them. Then they brought out 
the gifts they had for Jo-seph, and bowed down to the 
earth when they saw him. 

And he looked at Ben-ja-min and said, "Is this the 
youn-ger broth-er of whom ye spake to me ? May God 
be good to thee my son ! " 

And Jo-seph went out and wept with joy at the sight 
of Ben-ja-min. 

But he went back, and made them all sit down to dine, 
and sent them food from his own ta-ble. But Ben-ja-min's 
share was five times as much as any of theirs. So they 
ate and drank and feasted with him. 

Jo-seph told his stew-ard to fill all their sacks with corn, 
and to put all the mon-ey back that they had brought. 
He said, " Put my cup, my sil-ver cup, in the sack's mouth 
of the youn-gest." 

So as soon as it was light and they had gone a short 



4 6 



THE BIBLE STORY 



way, Joseph said to his stew-ard, " Up and aft-er them, 
and say, why have ye done e-vil for good?" 

The man did so, and asked them why they had tak-en 
the sil-ver cup from which his lord drank. 

Jo-seph's broth-ers were in a great state of fear when 
they heard this. They vowed they had no cup. They 
said that when their mon-ey had been found in the sacks 
they had brought it back. They might have kept it if 
they had been thieves, and now why should he think they 
would take sil-ver or eold that was not theirs. 




JO-SEPH RF.-VEALS HIM-SF.LF. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 47 



They said that if the cup was found on one of them he 
should be put to death and all the rest would be Jo-seph's 
slaves. But the stew-ard said the one who took the cup 
should be his slave and the rest could go. So each man 
took the sack from the back of his ass and set it on the 
ground. The stew-ard looked in each in turn, and he 
found the cup in Ben-ja-min's sack. 

Then they all rent their clothes, and turned back to the 
cit-y and went to Jo-seph. He seemed to think that they 
had stol-en the cup, and asked if they did not know he 
would find it out. He said, "The man in whose hand 
the cup is found, he shall be my ser-vant, and as for you 
get you up in peace to your fa-ther." 

But Ju-dah begged him and said that if they went 
home with-out the boy their fa-ther would die ; for his life 
was bound up with the lad's life. 

And he asked Jo-seph to let him stay and serve in the 
place of Ben-ja-min. " For how shall I go up to my fa-ther 
and the lad not with me." 

Then. Jo-seph could not hide what he felt. He said, 
" Cause all men to go out from me." So he was left with 
his broth-ers, and he wept a-loud, and told them who he 
was. He said " I am Jo-seph, your broth-er, whom ye sold 
in-to E-gypt." 

Then they were in great fright, but he told them God 
had brought good out of the wrong they had done, for 
he had saved ma-ny lives, " So now it was not you sent 
me here but God." 

He said food would be scarce for five years more. No 



48 THE BIBLE STORY. 

grain would be plant-ed in that time. So he said, " Make 
haste and go back to thy fa-ther in Ca-naan and say to 
him: Thus saith thy son Jo-seph, 'God hath made me 
lord of all E-gypt. Come down to me and thou shalt 
live in the best part of the land, and I will take care of 
thee, and thy flocks and herds, and all that thou hast." 

Then he kissed them all and wept, for he was glad to 
see them, and Ben-ja-min most of all. And they kissed 
him and talked with him. 

Pha-raoh was pleased when he heard that Jo-seph's 
broth-ers were there. He sent word to them that they 
should take wag-ons and bring their fa-ther and those of 
their house, and that the goods of E-gypt should be theirs, 
and they should live on the fat of the land. 

So Jo-seph gave them wag-ons and food for the way 
and clothes to wear. To Ben-ja-min he gave more than 
the rest and three hun-dred piec-es of sil-ver. He sent 
his fa-ther twen-ty ass-es load-ed with bread and meat and 
£Ood things. 

When the men told Ja-cob all these strange things, it 
seemed to him that the news was too good to be true. But 
when he saw the gifts, and heard all the kind words, he 
said, "It is e-nough. Jo-seph my son yet lives. I will go 
and see him be-fore I die." 



THE BIBLE STORY. 49 



CHAPTER VII. 

DEATH OF JO-SEPH. 

So Ja-cob left his home and set out for E-gypt. He 
stopped at Beer-she-ba, where his fa-ther had built an 
al-tar to God years be-fore, and he prayed there. And 
God said to him, " Fear not to go down to E-gypt, for I 
will make of thee a great na-tion." And God told him 
that when the time came for him to die Jo-seph would 
be at his side. 

So Ja-cob sent his son Ju-dah to go and tell Jo-seph 
that they were on the way. Jo-seph rode out to meet his 
fa-ther, and clasped him in his arms, and they both wept. 
Ja-cob was so glad to see this son whom he had thought 
dead, that it seemed as if life could bring no more joy 
to him, and he said, "Now let me die since I have seen 
thv face." 

Jo-seph told them that when Pha-raoh sent for them and 
asked what kind of work they were used to, they must 
say they had kept herds and flocks. Then he would let 
them live in Go-shen, which was a good land. 

So Jo-seph brought five of his broth-ers to Pha-raoh 
and they spoke as he had told them. They said they had 
come to stay for a time in the land of E-gypt, as there was 
no food for them in their own horns. 

Pha-raoh said they might live in the land of Go-shen, 



5o THE BIBLE STORY. 

and if they had men a-mong them who could do it, they 
might have the care of his cat-tie. 

Then Jo-seph brought his fa-ther to Pha-raoh. And 
Pha-raoh asked him how old he was. He said one hun- 
dred and thir-ty years ; and Ja-cob blessed Pha-raoh. 

So Ja-cob and all the breth-ren and their chil-dren went 
to the land of Go-shen and lived there. And Jo-seph 
gave them food and all that they need-ed. 

There were still more years when bread was scarce, and 
the people -came to Jo-seph to buy, and gave him all they 
had for corn. At last they sold him all their land so that 
Pha-raoh owned all E-gypt. 

When the sev-en years were past they had no seed to 
plant, or gold to buy it, so Jo-seph gave them seed and 
told them they could pay for it with a fifth part of the 
crops they raised. 

So the years passed and at last Ja-cob felt that the time 
of his death was near. He sent for Jo-seph and told 
him that he wished to be bur-ied in his own land, and he 
must take his dead bod-y there. 

So Ja-cob grew worse and some one told Jo-seph, 
"Thv fa-ther is sick." 

Then he called his two sons, E-phra-im and Ma-nas-seh, 
and they went to Ja-cob's house. His fa-ther sat up in 
the bed and talked with him. He told him how God 
had dealt with him and blessed him. And when he 
knew that E-phra-im and Ma-nas-seh were there, he told 
Jo-seph to bring the lads that he might bless them. Now 
he was old and his sight was dim. He put his arms 



THE BIBLE STORY. 5i 



a-round the bovs and kissed them, and said he had thought 
he would not see Jo-seph a-gain, and now God had let 
him see him and his sons too. 

Then he stretched out his hands and laid them on the 
boys' heads and blessed them. And he called all the rest 
of his sons and blessed each one and talked to them. He 
told them that God would lead them back to their own 
land, and that they must take his bod-y and lay him in the 
cave which A-bra-ham had bought, and where he had 
bur-ied his wife Le-ah. 

So he spoke no more, but drew up his feet in the bed 
and died. 

Jo-seph wept o-ver him and kissed him. Then he told 
his ser-vants that they must bring spi-ces and oth-er things 
which were used by the E-gyp-tians for their dead — to 
keep them from go-ing to dust. All the E-gyp-tians 
mourned for Ja-cob. 

Then Jo-seph sent and told .Pha-raoh that his fa-ther 
wished to be bur-ied in his own land, and that if he would 
let him go he would come back to the land of E-gypt. 
Pha-raoh gave him leave. So they went in great state 
and left the bod-y of Ja-cob in the cave where he had 
wished to rest. 

Now that Ja-cob was dead, the broth-ers of Jo-seph 
feared that he would not be kind to them. They sent to 
him and said that their fa-ther had left word that he should 
for-give them. Jo-seph wept when he heard this, and 
when they came and fell on their fa-ces he said, " I will 
take care of you and your lit-tle ones." And he told them 



52 THE BIBLE STORY. 

God had meant to do good by send-ing him to E-gypt 
that he might save ma-ny peo-ple from starv-ing. 

So they stayed on in E-gypt long years till Jo-seph's 
sons were grown. At last Jo-seph felt that his death was 
near, and he told his broth-ers that when God led them 
back to Ca-naan they must take his bod-y with them. 

So Jo-seph died, and in the course of time all his broth- 
ers died too. But their chil-dren and their chil-dren's 
chil-dren lived still in E-gypt, and they were ma-ny. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE STO-RY OF MO-SES. THE PLAGUES OF E-GYPT. 

There was a new king who ruled over the land whose 
name was Pha-raoh, but he had not e-ven heard of Jo-seph. 
So when he saw that the chil-dren of Is-ra-el were so 
ma-ny he feared lest they might rise a-gainst him. He let 
the E-gyp-tians use the peo-ple in a cru-el way. They set 
them tasks that they could not do, and made them work 
like slaves. 

Then the king thought of a way to make them few-er, 
and he made a law that all the boys should be killed as 
soon as they were born. But the wo-men feared God, 
and they let the boys live. Pha-raoh sent out word that 
the lit-tle boys should be drowned, but the lit-tle girls 
might live. 

Now there was an Is-ra-el-ite named Am-ram, and God 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



53 




THE HARD TASKS OF THK HE-BREWS. 



gave his wife a son. The moth-er feared that some one 
would kill him, so she hid him for three months. Then 
she did not dare to keep him, so she made a lit-tle boat 
wov-en of the long reeds that grow in wa-ter, and she 
daubed it with pitch so that the ba-by would not get wet. 
Then she laid her boy in it and took him down to the 
bank of the riv-er, but she could not leave him. She hid 
not far off to see what would be done with him. 



54 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



Now Pha-raoh's daugh-ter came clown with her maids 
to bathe. She saw the lit-tle boat and sent one of the 
maids for it. The ba-by cried when she looked at it, and 
she had a kind heart. She was sor-ry for it and said, 
"This is one of the He-brew chil-dren." 

Then the sis-ter of the ht-tle boy who had kept watch 
came and said, " May I call one of the He-brew wo-men 
to nurse the child for thee?" And she said " Go." 




THE FIND-ING OF MOSES. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 55 

So the sis-ter went and called the child's moth-er who 
was near. 

Pha-raoh's daugh-ter said, " Take this child and nurse 
it for me and I will pay thee wa-ges. K 

Then his moth-er took him back to her own home with 
a glad heart. 

But when he was old e-nough, Pha-raoh's daugh-ter sent 
for him and had him brought up in her own house. She 
called his name Mo-ses, which means, " Drawn out," for 
she said, " I drew him out of the wa-ter." 

When he was a man he knew he was not the son of 
Pha-roah's daugh-ter, and he chose to go with his own 
peo-ple. One day he saw an E-gyp-tian strike a He-brew, 
and he killed the E-gyp-tian and hid him in the sand. 

When he saw two of his own peo-ple in a fight, he 
asked them why they did so. One said, "Who made 
thee to rule o-ver us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst 
the E-gyp-tian?" Then Mo-ses knew that his deed was 
known, and he was a-fraid. 

When Pha-raoh heard of it he tried to kill Mo-ses, but 
he fled in-to the land of Mid-i-an. As he sat by a well 
there, he saw sev-en wo-men come to draw the wa-ter. 

The shep-herds drove them off, but Mo-ses helped them 
draw wa-ter for their flocks. When they went home 
their fa-ther asked them how they came so soon, and they 
told him. Je-thro, their fa-ther, asked them who the man 
was, and said they must bring him to the house. So 
Mo-ses came to the house, and lived there for years, and 
took one of Je-thro's daugh-ters for his wife. 



56 THE BIBLE STORY. 

While he was there, Pha-raoh, the king of E-gypt, died. 
The Is-ra-el-ites still had hard times and they cried to 
God, and He heard them. 

Now Mo-ses had the care of Je-thro's flocks, and he 
led them here and there where the best grass o-rew. So 
one day they came to a mount called Ho-reb. There 




MO-SES KILLS AN E-GYP-TIAN. 



was a bush in this place, and when Mo-ses looked at it he 
thought it was on fire. But when he went up to it, he 
saw that though it blazed it was not burned. 

Then God spoke to him out of the bush and said, 
" Mo-ses." He answered, " Here am I !" 



THE BIBLE STORY. 57 



And God said, " Put thy shoes from off thy feet, for the 
place where-on. thou stand-est is ho-ly ground." 

Then Mo-ses hid his face, for he feared to look on God. 

Then God said that He had heard the cries of the chil- 
dren of Is-ra-el, and that He would lead them out of the 
land of E-gypt. He told Mo-ses to go to the new king, 
who was named Pha-raoh like all the kings of E-gypt. 
He said that Mo-ses must tell him to let his peo-ple go, 
and that he was the one to lead them out of E-gypt. He 
must tell them that God would give them a new home in 
a land of milk and hon-ey. By this Pie meant that it was 
a good land where there was plen-ty to eat. 

But Mo-ses feared to go, and said that his peo-ple would 
not hear him, or be-lieve that God had sent him. 

Then the Lord said, "What is that in thine hand?" 

Mo-ses said, " A rod." 

The Lord said, "Cast it on the ground." 

Mo-ses did so, and the rod turned to a snake and he 
feared it. But the Lord told him to take it by the tail, 
and when he had done so he found that it was a rod once 
more. 

Then the Lord said, "Put thy hand now in thy bo-som." 

Mo-ses did so, and found, when he drew it out, that it 
was white as snow. This was the sign of lep-ro-sy, a 
strange dis-ease. But the Lord made the hand of Mo-ses 
well a-gain, and He told him that he could work signs 
and won-ders for his peo-ple so they would trust him. 

Still Mo-ses did not want to go. Pie told God that he 
could not speak well, and that some one else had bet-ter 



58 THE BIBLE STORY. 

go. The Lord said He would teach him what to say. 
Still he did not want to go, and the Lord grew wroth 
with him. 

Now Mo-ses had a broth-er, Aa-ron, and the Lord said 
that Aa-ron could speak well, and he could go with 
Mo-ses. He would teach them both what to say. All 
this time they stood by the bush that burned with fire, 
and the voice came out of the bush. 

Then Mo-ses went back to Je-thro's house and asked 
leave to go and lead his peo-ple out of E-gypt as the Lord 
had said, and Je-thro gave him leave. 

The Lord sent Aa-ron out to meet him, and he was 
glad and kissed him, and Mo-ses told him of all the words 
of God. 

So Mo-ses and Aa-ron sent for the chief men of their 
peo-ple and spoke to them. Mo-ses showed them the 
signs that God had sent them, and they trust-ed him. 

Then Mo-ses and Aa-ron went to Pha-raoh and asked 
that he would let the Is-ra-el-ites go and keep a feast, as 
the Lord had said. 

But Pha-raoh said, ' Who is the Lord that I should 
o-bey Him? I know not the Lord, nei-ther will I let the 
chil-dren of Is-ra-el go." 

Then they said, "It is God who has spo-ken. Let us 
go we pray thee ! " 

But Pha-raoh was an-gry and said they should not keep 
the peo-ple from their work, and he told them to go to 
work too. 

Xow the Is-ra-el-ites had to make bricks out of clay. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 5g 

They did not bake the bricks then in fire as we do to 
make them hard. They set them out to dry in the sun. 
They put straw in the bricks to make them strong. 

Now Pha-raoh was in such wrath that he said no one 
should give them straw — they must go out and get it. Yet 
they must make just as ma-ny bricks each day as when 
the straw was brought to them. 

So those who set their tasks said, " Go and find straw 
where ye can." When night came, and they had not 
made so ma-ny bricks, they were beat-en. Though they 
worked as hard as they could, it took time to pick up the 
straw in the fields, and so they could not make so ma-ny 
bricks. 

Pha-raoh said that they did not want to work, and that 
was why they said, " Let us go up and serve the Lord." 

So some of the Is-ra-el-ites went to Mo-ses and Aa-ron 
and said that they had made their lives hard-er than be-fore. 

Then Mo-ses told it all to the Lord, who said He would 
show what He would do. He told them to go to Pha-raoh 
once more, and if he should ask for a sign, Aa-ron must 
throw the rod on the ground and it would turn to a snake. 

So they did so, and when Pha-raoh saw that Aa-ron's 
rod was turned to a snake he sent for all his wise men. 
They came with rods too, and when they cast them on the 
ground the Lord turned them to snakes, but Aa-ron's rod 
ate their rods. 

Still Pha-raoh's heart was hard and he would not let 
them go. 

The Lord told Mo-ses that he must go and stand by the 



60 THE BIBLE STORY. 

side of the riv-er, and when Pha-raoh passed he must say 
to him, "The God of the He-brews has sent me to say to 
thee, 'Let my peo-ple go.'" 

But Pha-raoh would not. Then the Lord told Aa-ron 
to strike the wa-ter with his rod. When he had done so 
it grew as red as blood. And all the ponds and streams 
were changed to blood, and the fish died in them, and 
no one could drink of the wa-ter. And they had to set 
to work to dig wells. The blood stayed in the riv-er 
sev-en days. 

Still Pha-raoh would not let the peo-ple go. 

Then the Lord sent a plague of frogs in the land. They 
swarmed in all parts of it, in the hous-es and in the ov-ens 
where they baked bread. They went in the house of Pha- 
raoh, in his bed room, and up on his bed. 

So he sent for Mo-ses and Aa-ron and asked them to 
pray to their God to take the frogs a- way. So Mo-ses 
prayed and the Lord did what he asked. The frogs died 
all at once and lay in heaps through the land. But when 
Pha-raoh saw the frogs were dead he would not let the 
peo-ple go. 

Then the Lord told Aa-ron to strike the dust of the 
ground with his rod. And when he had done so the dust 
was changed to lice that crept on the peo-ple and on all 
the beasts of the fields. 

Still Pha-raoh made his heart hard and would not let 
the peo-ple go. 

Then the Lord sent a plague of flies that swarmed in 
all the hous-es, and ov-er Pha-raoh and all his court. But 



THE BIBLE STORY. 61 

in the land of Go-shen, where the He-brews lived, there 
were no flies. 

Then Pha-raoh sent for Mo-ses and Aa-ron and said 
that their peo-ple might keep a feast to their Lord, but 
they must not go out of the land of E-gypt. But Mo-ses 
told the king that they could not do this in E-gypt, for the 
E-gyp-tians bowed down to calves and ox-en, so if they 
saw one of these burnt on an al-tar they would be an-gry. 

And he begged Pha-raoh to let them go out a three 
days jour-ney and keep their feast. 

Then Pha-raoh said they might go, if they would not 
go far, and he asked Mo-ses to pray to their God to take 
off the flies. 

So Mo-ses prayed and the swarm of flies went so that 
there was not one left. 

When Pha-raoh saw this his heart grew hard and he 
would not let them go. 

Then the Lord told Mo-ses to say to Pha-raoh that if 
he did not let the chil-dren of Is-ra-el go, He would kill 
the flocks and herds of the E-gyp-tians, but save all those 
of the chil-dren of Is-ra-el. But Pha-raoh did not be-lieve 
this, and so the cows and hor-ses and all sorts of beasts 
died through the whole land. 

But not one of the chil-dren of Is-ra-el's flocks died. 
Pha-raoh sent and found out this, but strange to say it 
seemed to make his heart more hard and he would not 
let them go. 

So the Lord sent a new plague to E-gypt. He told 
Mo-ses and Aa-ron each to take a hand-ful of ash-es and 



62 THE BIBLE STORY. 

throw them up in the air in the sight of Pha-raoh. These 
ash-es flew like dust, and when they fell on a man or 
a beast they made sore boils. 

Still Pha-raoh would not let them go. 

Then the Lord told Mo-ses and Aa-ron to say that He 
would send a great storm of hail, and that each one must 
put his cat-tie in the barns, for if any were left out they 
would be killed. Some of the E-gyp-tians feared the 
Lord, and took in their cat-tie, but some let them stay in 
the fields. 

And the Lord told Mo-ses to stretch out his hand to 
heav-en, and he did so, with his rod in it. And the hail 
fell, and thun-der roared, and fire ran on the ground, so that 
there was hail and fire mixed such as no man had seen in 
his life. It fell on the fields and killed ev-er-y liv-ing thing, 
and broke down the bush-es and trees, and spoiled all the 
orain. But in the land of Go-shen no hail fell. 

Still Pha-raoh's heart was hard, and he would not let 
the peo-ple go. 

Then Mo-ses said a plague of lo-custs should come on 
the land. 

By this time the E-gyp-tians feared the wrath of God, 
and they went to their king and begged him to let the 
chil-dren of Is-ra-el go, that no more plagues should be 
sent on them. So the kin^ sent for Mo-ses and Aa-ron 
and said, " Go and serve the Lord your God." 

And he asked how ma-ny they want-ed to take with 
them. Mo-ses said all the chil-dren of Is-ra-el, old and 
young, with their flocks and herds. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 63 



But Pha-raoh said the men could go, but the wo-men 
and chil-dren must stay in E-gypt. 

So the Lord told Mo-ses to stretch out his hand with 
his rod and he did so. An east wind blew all the night, 
and when the day came, lo-custs lay so thick on the ground 
that it could not be seen. They went in the king's house 
and in the house of ev-er-y E-gyp-tian. They ate each 
green thing, and all the fruit on the trees, till there was 
not a blade of grass left in the land. 

Then Pha-raoh called Mo-ses and Aa-ron and said " I 
have sinned," and he begged them to for-give him this 
once and take a-way the lo-custs and he would be sure to 
let them go this time. 

So Mo-ses prayed to the Lord, and a strong wind came 
from the west and blew all the lo-custs a-way in-to the 
Red Sea and they were drowned. But when Pha-raoh 
saw that they were gone, he would not let the peo-ple go. 

So the Lord told Mo-ses to stretch forth his hand and 
he did so. Then it grew dark through all the land of 
E-gypt, so that they could not see for three days. No one 
dared to move out of his place the dark-ness was so great. 
But in the hous-es of the chil-dren of Is-ra-el it was light. 

Then Pha-raoh said the peo-ple might go if they would 
leave all their flocks and herds. 

But Mo-ses told him the flocks and herds must go too, 
for they need-ed them to of-fer up to the Lord. Then 
Pha-raoh showed great wrath and said they should not go, 
and if Mo-ses came to him once more he would have 
him killed. 



64 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Then Mo-ses told him that God would come to the 
land of E-gypt in the night and cause the first born in 
each house to die, from the first born in Pha-raoh's house 
down to the poor-est cot in the land There would be 
grief and tears through all the land for in each house 
there would be one dead. 

On-ly in the hous-es of the chil-dren of Is-ra-el there 
would be no deaths. 

So Mo-ses went out from Pha-raoh. 

Then the Lord told the men and wo-men of the Is-ra- 
el-ites to ask the E-gyp-tians to lend them some of their 
jew-els, rings, or neck-la-ces, and such things wrought of 
gold and sil-ver, and they did so. 

And God told Mo-ses and Aa-ron to tell each man to 
take a lamb and keep it four days ; then to kill it in the 
e-ven-ing. And he must take a sprig of a plant called 
hys-sop and dip it in the blood and touch each side of the 
door of his house with it, and set one mark on the top. 
Then he was to stay in his house all night, and roast the 
lamb, and all were to eat of it. They must keep their 
shoes on their feet and their staves in their hands, so that 
they could start at once, and they must eat in haste. 

The Lord meant to kill all the first-born of the E-gyp- 
tians that night, so that Pha-raoh would let his peo-ple go. 
But he would pass o-ver the hous-es that were marked 
with blood and no harm would come to a-ny one in them. 

So they call that feast the Pass-o-ver to this day and 
the bread which they ate then and all that week had no 
yeast in it. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



65 




THE FIRST PASS-O-VER. 



So Mo-ses told his peo-ple, and they did as the Lord 
had said. 

The Lord passed through the land that night, and when 
He saw the marks of blood on the doors no harm came 
to those in that house. But in each house of the E-gyp- 
tians the first-born died. And there was a great cry in 
the night that went up through the land, for there was not 
a house where there was not one dead. 



66 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Then Pha-raoh sent for Moses and Aa-ron and told 
them to make haste and go out of the land ; they and 
their peo-ple and flocks and herds. 

So the chil-dren of Is-ra-el rose and took all they owned, 
and all the gold and sil-ver the E-gyp-tians gave them, 
and set out for the land that God had prom-ised them. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOW THEY CROSSED THE RED SEA. 

God led the chil-dren of Is-ra-el by a long way to the 
land of Ca-naan. They went by the Red Sea. 

And Mo-ses took the bod-y of Jo-seph with him, as he 
had made the chil-dren of Is-ra-el prom-ise to do. 

So the Lord led them on and He showed them the way 
by a strange cloud that kept in front of them. In the 
night it was like a fire, and so they could see how to go in 
the dark. 

Now when they were gone, Pha-raoh still was sor-ry he 
had let them go. They had been his slaves and made 
great wealth for him. So he called his troops, and start-ed 
out in a char-i-ot to go aft-er them. 

The chil-dren of Is-ra-el had made a camp by the Red 
Sea; and all at once they looked and saw the ar-my of 
the E-gyp-tians. 

Then they were in great fear and cried to the Lord. 
They blamed Mo-ses too, and said that they had bet-ter 



THE BIBLE STORY. 67 



have stayed and worked in E-gypt than to be killed here. 
But Mo-ses said, "Fear not, but wait and see what the 
Lord will do for you. The Lord will fight for you." 

So it come to pass that when Pha-raoh and his troops 
were near them, the pil-lar of cloud that went in front 
moved to the rear of them. On the side next them it was 
light and lighted their camp, but on the side next the 
E-gyp-tians it was so dark they could not see how to 
move, for it was night. 

Then the Lord bade the chil-dren of Is-ra-el to go on. 
And He told Mo-ses to lift up his rod and hold it o-ver 
the sea and they could go o-ver on dry ground. Mo-ses 
did so, and the Lord sent a wind that blew the waves on 
each side and piled them up like a great wall. Then the 
ground was left dry, and the chil-dren of Is-ra-el went 
o-ver and did not as much as wet their feet. 

When Pha-raoh saw that they were gone, he thought 
he. could go with his troops the same way. But the Lord 
saw them and He made the wheels of their char-i-ots come 
off so that they could not drive on. An'd the E-gyp-tians 
said, " Let us go back, for the Lord fights a-gainst us." 

God told Mo-ses to stretch out his hand o-ver the sea 
and he did so. 

Then all the wa-ter came back once more, and Pha-raoh 
and his hosts were all drowned. Not one was left. 

Mo-ses and all his peo-ple were safe, and they sang a 
song of praise. Then they went on for three days, and 
they came to a place called Ma-rah. They tast-ed the 
wa-ter there but it was so bit-ter they could not drink it. 



6S 



THE BIBLE STORY 




PHA-RAOH AND HIS HOSTS ARE DROWNED IN THE RED SEA. 

They said to Moses, "What shall we drink?" Moses 
asked the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree and 
told him to throw that in the wa-ter. He did so and it 
made the wa-ter fit to drink. 

Then they went on for some days and at last food grew 
scarce. The peo-ple blamed Mo-ses, and said that in 
E-gypt they had bread and meat to eat, and they wished 
he had left them there, and not brought them to this wild 
place to die. 

The Lord heard this, and He said He would give them 
food to eat, and take care of them. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



So when the sun was go-ing down, great flocks of quails 
flew in the camp, and they caught them. And in the 
night fell small round white things, that lay thick on the 
ground. They did not know what it was at first, but 
Mo-ses said, "This is food that the Lord has sent for 
you to eat." 

He told each man to pick up as much as he need-ed for 
his house for one day, but no more, as they must trust in 
God who would send it as it was need-ed. 

Now there were some who did not have faith, and they 
took more, and tried to keep it, but it was spoiled and had 
worms in it. When the sun grew hot, the Man-na, as it 
was called, melt-ed. But on the day be-fore the Sab-bath 
there was twice as much Man-na fell, and they could keep 
it, for the Lord did not want them to work on the Sab- 
bath. Some of them went to look for it on the Sab-bath, 
but they found none, and the Lord was not pleased with 
them. 

The Man-na was small as a seed and sweet as hon-ey. 
Mo-ses told Aa-ron to put some in a pot and keep it to 
show in the years to come how the Lord had fed his 
peo-ple. 

The chil-dren of Is-ra-el were apt to find fault with 
Mo-ses when they did not have what they want-ed. If 
wa-ter was scarce they blamed him, and said that he had 
brought them out of E-gypt to kill them. 

And Mo-ses cried to the Lord, "What shall I do with 
them, for they are fit to stone me?" 

Now they had reached the place called Ho-reb, where 



;o THE BIBLE STORY. 

Mo-ses had seen the bush that was on fire and did not 
burn, and where the Lord had told him to go and lead 
the chil-dren of Is-ra-el out of the land of E-gypt. 




MO-SES STRIK-ING THE ROCK. 

The Lord told him to strike his rod on a rock in Ho-reb 
and wa-ter would flow from it. Mo-ses did so, and the 
peo-ple drank. 

Now some of the peo-ple of the land, called Am-a-lek- 



THE BIBLE STORY. 71 



ites, came out to fight them. Then Mo-ses called a brave 
man named Josh-u-a and said to him, " Choose men and 
go out and fight the Am-a-lek-ites, and I will stand on 
the hill with the rod of God in my hand." 

So Josh-u-a took some brave men and went out to the 
fight. Mo-ses and Aa-ron went up on a high hill, and 
while Mo-ses held up the rod the chil-deen of Is-ra-el won 
the fight. But as soon as the rod was drop-ped they lost. 
Now Mo-ses grew tired, and then Aa-ron and a man 
named Hur helped him to hold up his hands, and they 
kept up the rod till the sun went down and the chil-dren 
of Is-ra-el won the fight. God was an-gry with the Am- 
a-lek-ites and said the time would come when not one of 
them should be left in the land. 

In the third month aft-er they had left E-gypt they 
came near a mount named Si-nai, and there they pitched 
their camp. 

Mo-ses went up the mount, and the Lord talked with 
him and told that He wished to speak with him so that 
all the chil-dren of Is-ra-el would hear. 

He told him to tell them all to bathe, and make them 
clean, and to do no sin, and on the third day He would 
come down from Mount Si-nai and speak to them. They 
must not go up the mount on that day or they would be 
sure to die. But they would hear a great trump-et blow 
and then they could stand at the foot of the mount. 

Mo-ses told the peo-ple all this, and they did as the 
Lord had said. And on the third day they heard thun- 
der, and saw the flash of lightening, and there was a thick 



72 



THE BIBLE STORY. 




AA-RON AND HUR HOLD UP THE HANDS OF MO-SES. 



cloud on the mount. Then the trum-pet sound-ed and the 
peo-ple shook for fear. And all the mount seemed on fire 
and it shook to its base. 

Then Mo-ses spoke and God an-swered and gave the 
words of ten com-mands to the peo-ple, which should 
be the rules of their lives. We give them here in a short 
way. 

This was the first com-mand : Thou shalt have no oth-er 
God be-fore me. 

Sec-ond. Thou shalt not make a-ny grav-en im-age, 
nor bow down to it and wor-ship it. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



Third. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 
God in vain. 

Fourth. Re-mem-ber the Sab-bath day to keep it ho-ly. 

Fifth. Hon-or thy fa-ther and moth-er. 

Sixth. Thou shalt not kill. 

Sev-enth. Thou shalt not com-mit a-dul-ter-y. 

Eight. Thou shalt not steal. 

Ninth. Thou shalt not bear false wit-ness a-gainst thy 
neigh-bor. 

Tenth. Thou shalt not cov-et a-ny-thing that is thy 
neio-h-bor's. 

Now the peo-ple heard God's voice, and they were 
a-fraid. They said to Mo-ses, " Speak thou with us and 
we will hear, but let not God speak to us or we shall die." 

But Mo-ses 'said the Lord had spo-ken so that they 
would fear to sin. 

And God told Mo-ses to come up on the mount once 
more and he would write all these laws on two ta-bles of 
stone. Mo-ses did so and Josh-u-a went with him. First 
there came a cloud that stayed on the mount six days. 
Then, on the sev-enth day. the Lord spoke to Mo-ses out 
of the cloud, and Mo-ses went up in-to the cloud. Lie 
was not seen for for-ty days, but the peo-ple saw a fire at 
the top of the cloud, and they felt that God was there. 

The Lord told Mo-ses that the peo-ple should build a 
tab-er-na-cle — a house in which they might meet and pray 
to him. He showed him a plan of this tab-er-na-cle, 
which was to be rich with sil-ver and gold and fine work 
in brass. Mo-ses was to ask the peo-ple to bring gifts to 



74 THE BIBLE STORY. 

help this work. Then God said there must be an ark 
made of wood, cov-ered out and in with gold, and in this 
ark Mo-ses must keep the two ta-bles of stone that He 
would give him. On the cov-er of the ark, at each end, 
they must have two an-gels wrought in pure gold They 
were to face each oth-er and have their wings spread. 
There must be a ta-ble made of wood cov-ered with gold 
to stand in the tab-er-na-cle and a gold-en can-die-stick to 
hold a light that should burn there all the time. 

This tab-er-na-cle was to be made so that men could 
raise it and bear it from place to place like a tent. The 
wood was all to be cov-ered with gold, and rich cur-tains 
were to be hung at the door, and on the in-side to make 
two rooms of it. In one the ark with the law on the 
ta-bles of stone was to be kept, and in one the ta-ble and 
the gold-en can-die-stick. There was to be a court a-round 
this tab-er-na-cle, and there must be a large al-tar in this 
court, made of wood with brass laid on it. On this al-tar 
ox-en and sheep and goats were to be of-fered up to God. 

And the Lord said that Aa-ron and his sons should 
be priests in this tab-er-na-cle, and they should be clothed 
in rich robes. Aa-ron was to be the high priest, and on 
his cap of white lin-en these words were to be placed on 
a gold plate, " Ho-li-ness to the Lord." 

All their robes were to be of fine stuffs of blue and 
scar-let and decked with pre-cious stones. 

When the tab-er-na-cle was built, Mo-ses was to lead 
Aa-ron and his sons there, and make them wash in pure 
wa-ter. Then they were to put on the rich robes, and 



THE BIBLE STORY. 75 



Mo-ses must pour oil on Aa-ron's head, and of-fer up a 
lamb for him on the al-tar. And each day two lambs 
must be of-fered up on the great brass al-tar, one in the 
morn-ing and one at night, for the sins of the peo-ple. 

Then there must be a small al-tar made and cov-ered 
with gold. It was to stand in the room where the ta-ble 
and can-die-stick were. 

In-cense must be burned on this al-tar. In-cense is made 
of the gum of a tree and has a sweet smell. We are told 
that the an-i-mals burnt on the brass al-tar were to show 
forth the death of the son of God, who died for our sins. 

Then God told Mo-ses that there must be 1 a great ba-sin 
of brass filled with wa-ter, to stand in the court. He 
named the man who should have charge of all this work. 

Then He gave Mo-ses the ta-bles of stone on which 
He had writ-ten the ten laws with His own hands. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE CALF OF GOLD. 

Now all this time the chil-dren of Is-ra-el were in camp 
at the foot of Mount Si-nai. They grew tired at last and 
came to Aa-ron and said, " As for this man Mo-ses who 
brought us up out of the land of E-gypt, we know not 
what has be-come of him." 

And they asked Aa-ron to make an i-dol for them that 
they might pray to it. He told them to give him their 



76 • THE BIBLE STORY. 

gold rings, and they did so. He melt-ed them in the fire, 
and made an i-dol in the shape of a calf. . 

And they said this calf should be their god. Aa-ron 
built .them an al-tar and the next day they rose up and 
burnt sheep on it to the calf and prayed to it, and had a 
feast there. 

The Lord saw this, and told Mo-ses to go down and 
stop the peo-ple's sin. So he went down with the two 
ta-bles of stone in his hand. 

When he drew near, he heard the noise of the peo-ple, 
and Josh-u-a said, " There is a noise of war in the camp." 

But Mo-ses said that it was not the voice of those that 
have won and shout, nor the voice of those that have lost 
and cry that he heard, but it was the voice of those that 
sing. 

And when he came near-er and saw the calf and the 
peo-ple that danced, he was so an-gry that he cast down 
the ta-bles of stone and broke them. 

Then he took the calf and burnt it in the fire and 
ground it to dust, and he put the dust in the wa-ter the 
peo-ple had to drink. He asked Aa-ron why he had 
helped the peo-ple to sin. 

Aa-ron tried to find some, ex-cuse. He said the peo-ple 
were bent on sin, and brought him their gold rings, and 
he just dropped them in the fire and they took the shape 
of a calf. 

Then Mo-ses stood in the gate, and called all those who 
were on the Lord's side to come to him. And he told 
them to go through the camp and slay those they should 



THE BIBLE STORY. 




MO-SES BREAKS THE TA-BLES OF THE LAW. 



meet, so that they might be free of this sin. In that day 
there were three thou-sand slain. 

Then Mo-ses said he would pray to the Lord for them, 
and he did so. He said, " Oh Lord, these peo-ple have 
sinned a great sin," and he begged God to for-give them. 

But God would not; and He told them that they should 
not have the cloud to guide them on the way, but would 
have to find the land of Ca-naan as best they could. 
But Mo-ses prayed with all his heart, till at last the Lord 
said He would still so w jth them. And He told Mo-ses 



78 THE BIBLE STORY. 

to make two ta-bles of stone and He would write once 
more His laws on them. 

The Lord told Mo-ses that when he reached Ca-naan 
he must not make friends of the peo-ple who bowed down 
to strange gods. He must pull down their al-tars and 
break their i-dols. So Mo-ses went up in the mount and 
fast-ed for-ty days and nights. Then the Lord wrote the 
ten com-mand-ments on the ta-bles of stone that he had 
brought. Mo-ses came down with the ta-bles. And his 
face shone be-cause he had been with the Lord. 

Then he told the peo-ple that they were to bring gifts 
to build a house to the Lord. So they brought gold and 
sil-ver and brass, or fine lin-en, or wood, just what they 
chose to give. They brought so much that at last Mo-ses 
sent word through the camp that he need-ed no more. 

Then those who knew how to weave went to work and 
made cur-tains of fine lin-en, blue and scar-let, and they 
dyed goat skins to put on the roof. The cur-tain that 
humi on the in-side and made the two rooms was called 
the veil. It was of blue and pur-ple and scar-let and was 
very rich. And all the work was done as the Lord had 
said. And the rich robes for Aa-ron and his sons were 
wov-en with gold and set with pre-cious stones. 

When all w r as done God told Mo-ses to set up the tab- 
er-na-cle and he did so. The cur-tains of fine lin-en were 
hung, and the al-tar was set in the court, and the great 
ba-sin near the al-tar where Aa-ron and his sons could 
wash their feet and hands. 

Then when all was done the pil-lar of cloud that went 



THE BIBLE STORY. 79 



be-fore them to show the way came o-ver the ta-ber-na-cle, 
and stayed there, and it was all filled with the glo-ry 
of God. 

The Lord spoke to Mo-ses from that place, and gave 
him all the new laws for the chil-dren of Is-ra-el. 



CHAPTER. XL 



GOD GIVES MORE LAWS. 



God told Mo-ses to bring Aa-ron and his sons so that 
they might be made His priests. So Mo-ses called the 
peo-ple, and then he brought Aa-ron and his sons, and 
they were washed with wa-ter and put on the rich robes 
that had been made for them. They were to stay near 
the tab-er-na-cle, and go in and burn in-cense and of-fer 
up gifts to the Lord. 

When Aa-ron had been made high priest, he took a 
lamb and killed it, and laid it on the al-tar. Then the 
Lord sent fire and burned the lamb. All the peo-ple 
shout-ed for joy when they saw the fire, for they knew the 
Lord was pleased with them. They kept the fire burn-ing 
on the al-tar all the time, be-cause the Lord had sent it. 

Each day two lambs were of-fered up on that al-tar, one 
in the morn-ine and the oth-er at nijjht. There were two 
kinds of of-fer-ing; one when a man grieved for his sin, 
and brought an an-i-mal which was laid on the al-tar by 
the priest and burnt up. This was called a burnt of-fer-ing. 



So THE BIBLE STORY. 

Then when a man wished to give thanks to God, or to 
ask Him to bless him, the priests did not burn the an-i-mal 
all up. They kept part to eat, and they gave some to the 
man to eat. This kind was known as a peace of-fer-ing. 

The man would take his part home, and call in his 
friends to eat with him, and they would keep a feast. 
For he had to eat it all that dav, it must none of it be 
kept. 

Aa-ron and his sons must burn m-cense each dav. 
They put coals in a sort of cup, and the cup was set on 
the al-tar, and then the gum was strewn on the coals so 
that a sweet smoke went up. They must take the coals 
from the al-tar where God had sent the fire. It burned 
night and day. 

Once two of Aa-ron's sons took strange fire for their 
in-cense, and God was an-grv, so they were burnt to death. 
Mo-ses said that no one should mourn for them, as thev 
had died for their sins. 

And God told Mo-ses what an-i-mals and beasts and 
birds the peo-ple might eat when they reached the land 
of Ca-naan. Thev might not eat cam-els or rab-bits or 
pigs. They could eat all fish that had scales on it, but 
those that were smooth they must not eat. That which 
they could eat was called clean, and the rest was un-clean. 

Now there was a strange dis-ease in that land called 
lep-ro-sy. God told Mo-ses that when a man had a spot 
or sore on him he must go at once to the priest. If he 
had lep-ro-sy, he must go out of the camp far from men 
and live till he orew well. Then he must £0 back to the 



THE BIBLE STORY. Si 

priest and let him see if he was well. If he were well he 
could go back in the camp, but he must bring three lambs, 
or if he were too poor for that, he must bring one lamb 
or a pair of doves to of-fer up as thanks to God who had 
cured him. 

Now God meant to teach His peo-ple by all these things. 
The high priest prayed for the peo-ple as Christ does for 
us in Heav-en. 

The Lord said that when the chil-dren of Is-ra-el should 
have their homes in Ca-naan, and have fields and fruit- 
trees, they must leave some grain in the field and fruit 
on the tree for the poor in the land who had none. 

They must not steal or lie, and must pay each day the 
men who worked for them. They must not speak a-gainst 
a deaf man who could not hear, or put a stone in the 
way of the blind, and they must not tell tales of each 
oth-er. They must love each oth-er and speak kind words. 
If they saw one sin they must tell how wrong it was and 
try to lead him to do right. They must treat those who 
came from oth-er lands as though they were friends. 

Now the peo-ple where they were go-ing prayed to an 
i-dol made of brass, with the face of a calf, called Mo-loch. 
It was hol-low on the in-side, so that a fire could be made 
in it. When the fire had made it hot they used to put 
their ba-bies in the i-dol's arms and they were burnt to 
death. Then they beat drums so that they would not 
hear the cries of the poor chil-dren. 

Now God told Mo-ses that if one of the chil-dren of 
Is-ra-el should give his child to Mo-loch, he must be stoned 



8 2 THE BIBLE STORY. 

till he was dead. If they did not kill him, God would 
do it. 

The Lord told them they must keep three feasts a year 
to Him. The first was the feast of the pass-o-ver, which 
was first kept at the time when they were to go out of 
E-gypt, and the Lord had passed o-ver their hous-es and 
slain the first born of the E-gyp-tians. They must eat 
bread with no yeast in it for sev-en • days, so that they 
would think of the way in which the Lord had made 
Pha-raoh let them q-o. 

Sev-en weeks aft-er the pass-o-ver they must keep the 
feast of the har-vest for one dav when all the grain had 
been put in the barns. This was to thank God that He 
had made it to grow. 

When all the grain was brought in and the fruit picked 
they were to keep a feast for sev-en days. They were to 
cut off branch-es of trees and make booths or tents of 
them so that they would not for-get how they had lived in 
tents, and the way the Lord had led them in the des-ert. 

The Lord said they must bring ol-ive oil to burn in the 
lamps in His tab-er-na-cle all night and all day, and that 
no one but the priests should trim these lamps. 

And He said they must have twelve loaves made of 
fine flour, and place them on the gold-en ta-ble in PI is 
tab-er-na-cle. When it had been there a week Aa-ron or 
his sons must take it out and put new bread there. They 
might eat the old bread, but they must eat it in the Lord's 
house be-cause it was ho-ly bread. They might not take 
it home. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 83 



There was a man in the camp who spoke e-vil of God 
at this time, and the Lord told Mo-ses that they must put 
him to death. So the man was sent out of the camp and 
stoned till he died. 

The Lord said that when they reached Ca-naan they 
might plant and reap for six years and take all that grew, 
but the sev-enth year they should let the land rest and not 
plant it. They need not fear that they should have no 
food to eat, for He would make twice as much to grow in 
the sixth year. 

Once in fif-ty years there was to be a time of great joy. 
It was to be called the year of ju-bi-lee. They were to 
do no work that year, but God would give them food. If 
a poor man had lost or sold his land he should get it back 
in that year and all that were slaves must be set free. 

If they would keep all his laws God prom-ised His 
peo-ple that they would thrive in their new homes. Their 
crops would grow, and no wild beast should hurt them. 
Xo foe could harm them, for He would take care of them. 
But if they sinned they should not thrive. Their grain 
should not grow and wild beasts would take off their 
chil-dren and kill their flocks. They should die in the 
streets for want of food and their foes would make war on 
them and take them for slaves. 

Yet if those who were left were sor-ry for their sins, 
and prayed to Him, He would be their friend once 
more. 



84 THE BIBLE STORY 



CHAPTER XII. 

THEY DO NOT TRUST IN GOD. 

The chil-dren of Is-ra-el were now twelve tribes, and 
God told Mo-ses to count them. Each tribe came from 
one of the sons of Ja-cob. All of these but the Le-vites 
were to give men to fight the foes whom they would meet 
on the way. But the Le-vites had the care of the house 
of God. They had to wait on Aa-ron and his sons. 

Now the pil-lar of cloud was still o-ver this house, and 
in the night it shone like fire. When it moved they knew 
that the Lord meant that they should go on. 

When they moved they marched like troops and bore 
ban-ners. Each tribe kept its own place and had a cap- 
tain. When they stopped, the house of the Lord was set 
down first. Then the Le-vites pitched their tents near it. 

Now the time came for them to leave Mount Si-nai, 
and the Lord spoke to them and told them to go on. 
The cloud moved and they start-ed out on their march. 
They went for three days and stopped at Pa-ran. 

There they found fault with the Lord. They said they 
were tired of Man-na and want-ed meat. In E-gypt, they 
said, they had fish and meat and all sorts of good things, 
and they were sick of the Man-na. And they wept in 
their tents. 

Mo-ses felt very much cast down. He asked God why 
He had giv-en him the care of such peo-ple. It was too 



THE BIBLE STORY. 85 

much for him, and he would rath-er die that go on with it. 
The Lord said to him that he should tell the peo-ple they 
should have meat, more than they want-ed. They should 
have it for a whole month till they could not bear the 
sight of it. Then Mo-ses said, " Here are six hun-dred 
thous-and peo-ple and Thou say-est that Thou wilt give 
them flesh that they may eat for a whole month ? Must 
all the flocks and herds be killed, or all the fish of the sea 
be caught ? " 

And the Lord said " Hath My hand grown weak, that 
I can-not do it? Wait and thou shalt see." 

Mo-ses told the peo-ple what the Lord had said. And 
great winds blew so that quails fell thick a-round the camp 
and lay in heaps on the ground. The peo-ple went and 
picked them up for two days. 

But while they ate, the Lord sent a plague on them for 
their sins, and rna-ny died. 

Now when they had gone on for a time it came in-to 
the heart of Aa-ron and of Mir-i-am, the sis-ter of Mo-ses, 
to find fault with him. Mir-i-am said that the wife of 
Mo-ses was not one of the chil-dren of Is-ra-el, and that 
he had no right to rule them. 

Then the Lord was wroth with Mir-i-am and Aa-ron, 
and He bade them go to the door of the tab-ef-na-cle. 
And the Lord came in the pil-lar of cloud and told them 
that Mo-ses did His will, and asked if thev did not fear 
to speak a-gainst him. 

When the cloud rose from that place Aa-ron looked at 
Mir-i-am and saw she was a le-per as white as snow. . 



S6 THE BIBLE STORY. 

And he cried out to Mo-ses, " We have sinned," and 
he prayed that Mir-i-am might be healed. And the Lord 
had pit-y on her and healed her. 

At last the lono- march drew near its end. The chil-dren 
of Is-ra-el were near to Ca-naan. They thought best to 
send out spies to see the land first and bring back word 
of all they saw. So Mo-ses chose twelve men, one from 
each tribe, to go and see if it were a good land, and what 
sort of peo-ple lived in it. He want-ed to know if they 
had strong cit-ies with walls a-round them, or if they lived 
in tents, and he told the spies to bring back some of the 
fruit of the land. 

So the men went out and walked through Ca-naan, and 
the Lord kept them from all harm. They found it was a 
good land. The grapes at a place called Esh-col grew in 
bunch-es so large that it took two men to car-ry one bunch. 
They cut one off and tied it to a pole and each man took 
an end and so they brought it to show Mo-ses. They 
brought figs too and oth-er fruit. 

They were gone for-ty days and then they came back 
and showed what they had brought. They said the soil 
was rich and ©-rain and vines grew well. There were 
walled cit-ies there, and the peo-ple were strong and to be 
feared, and the Is-ra-el-ites had bet-ter not go there. 

But there were two of the spies, Ca-leb and Josh-u-a, 
who had faith in God and knew He would take care of 
them in the strange land. They begged the peo-ple to 
go on, but the Is-ra-el-ites were a-fraid, and wept, and said, 
" We wish God had let us die in E-gypt and not brought 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



87 




HtuiLn.su 



THE SPIES BRING BACK FRUITS FROM CA-NAAN. 



us here." And they asked, " Why has the Lord brought 
us to this land so that we and our wives and chil-dren 
may be killed." 

And they said, " Let us choose a new man to lead us, 
and go back to E-gypt." 

Then Mo-scs and Aa-ron were in deep grief. Josh-u-a 
and Ca-leb, the two good spies, did what they could and 
said that Ca-naan was a rich land and they need not fear 
that the Lord would not help them. But the peo-ple were 
in such a state that they want-ed to stone them. 

Then the Lord was an-gry with the chil-dren of Is-ra-el, 



THE BIBLE STORY 



and said He would send a sore sick-ness and sweep them 
from the face of the earth. But Mo-ses prayed to the 
Lord and said that if He slew his peo-ple all the na-tions 
would say that He could not bring them to the land as 
He had said and they would be glad. 

The Lord said that He would not sweep them from the 
face of the earth, but they could not go in Ca-naan yet for 
their sins. They must turn back in the des-ert and wait 
for-ty years more. By that time all the men who had said 
they would not go in-to Ca-naan would be dead, and He 
would lead the rest there and mve the land to them. And 
He said that the two good spies, Ca-leb and J.osh-u-a, 
should live till then and go in-to the land. 

Then the chil-dren of Is-ra-el want-ed to £o to Ca-naan 
at once, but Mo-ses said that they could not do so now, 
for the Lord would not help them and the men of the land 
would kill them. But some did not be-lieve this, and they 
tried to go in-to Ca-naan, but they were chased back to 
their camp. So they had to turn back to the des-ert. 

At one time they found a man at work on the Sab-bath, 
pick-ing up sticks, and they took him and kept him to see 
what the Lord would have them do with him. He had 
brok-en God's law. The Lord said to Mo-ses, "The man 
shall sure-ly be put to death. Take him out of the camp 
and stone him with stones till he is dead." And the peo- 
ple did as the Lord said. 

There were three men named Ko-rah, Da-than, and 
A-bi-ram that tried to set the tribes a-gainst Mo-ses and 
Aa-ron. Ko-rah was a Le-vite and his work was to wait 



THE BIBLE STORY. S 9 

on the priests. He said Aa-ron had no more right to be 
high priest than he had. Mo-ses told them that they 
might each take a cens-er the next day, and burn in-cense 
on it as the priests did, and the Lord would show whom 
He would have for high priest. So the three men and all 
those they had made to think as they did went the next 
day and took cens-ers and put fire in them. 

The Lord was an-gry with these men and He caused 
the ground to o-pen, and they fell down in it, and were 
bur-ied a-live, and their cries went up in the ears of the 
peo-ple. Then they feared God and fled. 

Yet still some of the chil-dren of Is-ra-el talked a-gainst 
Mo-ses and Aa-ron, and said it was their fault that Ko-rah, 
Da-than, and A-bi-ram and all the men with them had 
been killed. They said the men who had died were good 
men. Then God was so an-gry with the peo-ple that He 
said to Mo-ses and Aa-ron, " Go from them that I may 
de-stroy them." 

But Mo-ses and Aa-ron fell on their fa-ces and begged 
the Lord to spare them. 

Yet while they prayed, word was brought that there 
was a great sick-ness in the camp and some were dead. 

Then Mo-ses said to Aa-ron, " Go quick-ly and take a 
cens-er and put fire in it and burn in-cense to the Lord." 

And Aa-ron ran out and stood with the in-cense be- 
tween those who had died and those who still lived, and 
the Lord stopped the plague. Then the Lord told Mo-ses 
to ask each tribe to send a rod to him, with the name of 
the man who brought it on it. Then he must take them to 



90 THE BIBLE STORY. 

the tab-er-na-cle and lay them in the most holy place be- 
fore the ark all night. He said one should bud in the 
night and bear blos-soms like a tree. And the man whose 
name was on that rod should be the high priest. 

So the peo-ple did so. Next day when Mo-ses looked 
at the rods it was found that Aa-ron's rod had bloomed 
and borne al-monds. So the Lord told Mo-ses to keep 
that rod in the tab-er-na-cle, so that all might know that 
He chose Aa-ron for His high priest. When Aa-ron 
should die, his sons were to be priests and so on, and the 
Le-vites must wait on the priests, and all the oth-er tribes 
must give the Le-vites part of their gram and fruit and 
flocks and herds. You see the Le-vites could not earn 
gold, but had to work for the Lord's house all the time, so 
the rest were to give a tenth part of their goods to them. 

Then the chil-dren of Is-ra-el went on till they came to 
Zin and Mir-i-am died and was bur-ied there. 

Once more they cried out a-gainst Mo-ses and Aa-ron, 
for there was no wa-ter in the place. They said " Why 
have you brought us here to die? No figs or vines grow 
here, and there is no wa-ter to drink." 

Then the Lord told Mo-ses to call the peo-ple to a rock 
that was there. And Mo-ses felt an-gry, and he said, 
" Hear now ye reb-els, must we fetch wa-ter out of this 
rock for you ? " 

And he struck the rock with his rod twice and the 
wa-ter gushed out. But God was not pleased with Mo- 
ses, for he had talked as if he made the wa-ter come, 
when it was God's work. And God told Mo-ses and 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



9i 



Aa-ron that they should not see the land of Ca-naan. 
They would both have to die be-fore the time came for 
the chil-dren of Is-ra-el to go in that land. 

Now they came to the land of E-dom and Mo-ses sent 
to ask the king of the place if they could pass through. 
He told what a hard time they had in E-gypt, and now 
he said, " Let us pass through the land. We will not 
go through the fields or tread down the grain, nor will we 
drink the wa-ter of the wells. We will go on the king's 
high-way." 

But the king said they should not go through his land, 
and he brought men out to fight them. So they turned 
and did not go that way. 

Then they came to a mount called Hor. And God 
made known to Mo-ses that Aa-ron must die there on the 
top of the mount. The Lord said, "Take Aa-ron and 
his son, E-le-a-zar, and bring them to the top of the mount, 
and take the high priest's robes from off Aa-ron and put 
them on his son." And Mo-ses did so. Then Aa-ron 
died, and all the tribes mourned for him for-ty days. 

The long march still went on, and the chil-dren of Is- 
ra-el sinned and said, " We loathe this Man-na, and there 
is no bread or wa-ter." 

The Lord was not pleased with them and He sent a 
plague of fi-e-ry snakes in the camp that bit them so that 
some of them died. Then once more they begged Mo-ses. 
to pray God to take the plague from them. "We have 
sinned," they cried. 

Mo-ses did pray for them, and the Lord told him to 



THE BIBLE STORY. 




. THE BRASS SNAKE HEALS THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN BIT-TEN. 

make ? brass snake and put it on a pole, and if those who 
were bit-ten would look at it they should be made well. 
So Mo-ses did as the Lord said, and those who were 
bit-ten were healed by the Lord. 

When the chil-dren of Is-ra-el reached the land of Mo- 
ab, their king was named Ba-lak. Now he feared them, 
and thought they had come to fight him, and he saw that 
they were a great host. There was a man in his land, 
named Ba-laam, who made out that he had great pow-er 
with God. The kin<r sent for this man, and told him that 



THE I Tl LE STORY, ;.; 



if he would pray for a curse to fell on the chil-dren of . 
ra-el he would make him rich and great 

N ; v Ba-laam was a rich man, but he loved gold and 
he did not care how he made it So he rose and took his 
ass and set out with the men to go to the kir 

N w God was wroth with Ba-laam, and He sent an 
an-gel that stood right in his way with a drawn sword. 
Ba-laam did not see b it the -\\ id, an : 

out of the roil Ht :::::-::.t: -. _ : s.-.r ~" ; _. . ; 

She pressed up to the wall at the side of the and 

crushed Ba-laam s foot He struck her on; : 
then she fell down in the road in great fear. 

Tr.tr. 2 : >.::::. t: : \t: : .1:= :: .r ;:.:::.; L;::::.'-^ 
the ass speak and say. " W hat have I done that thou 
struck me these three timer 

Ba-laam told her that she had turned out of the v, 
and he s aid, I wish I had my sword in my hand for 
now would I loll thee." 

And the ass spoke once more and asked, " Have I e 
::::: Ba-laam had to " No." 

And the Lord caused him to see the an-gel that stood 
in the road with a sword in his hand. 

Then Ba-laam bowed down his face to the ground. The 
an-gel said, "*\Yhv hast thou struck thine ass these three 
tirr 

And he told him that he had come out to stop him on 
the way to sin, and that if the beast had not turned out 
of the road Ba-laam would have been killed and the ass 
saved. 



94 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



The an-gel said that Ba-laam might go with the men, but 
he must speak to the king what he would tell him to say. 

So he went on and the king came out to meet him. The 
next day the king took him up to a high place where he 
could look down on the camp of Is-ra-el. 




AN AN-GEL STOPS BA-LAAM IN THE ROAD. 



Ba-laam told the king to build sev-en al-tars, and get 
sev-en bulls or rams, to of-fer up. 

The king did so, and burnt the beasts on the al-tar, 
while Ba-laam went to see if the Lord would let him curse 
the chil-dren of Is-ra-el. But the Lord sent him back and 
said he must speak good things of them, and not curse them. 

But Ba-laam still want-ed to earn the gold and hoped 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



95 



that in some way he might do it. And he made the king 
build sev-en more al-tars, and burn sev-en more beasts 
on them, but still the Lord said he must not curse Is-ra-el 
but bless them. 

And a third time they tried the same thing. Then the 
king was wroth with Ba-laam. He said, " I sent for thee 
to curse my foes, and, lo, thou hast blessed them these 
three times." And he told him to go back to his home. 

Still Ba-laam hoped for some of the gold and sought 
for a way to earn it. He told the Mo-ab-ites to make a 
feast to their i-dols and get the chil-dren of Is-ra-el to come 
to it. They did so, and the Is-ra-el-ites came and bowed 
down to the false gods. Then the Lord was wroth with 
them, and sent a plague that killed many of them. 

When the for-ty years were passed God brought them 
near Ca-naan once more. 

The Lord said that Mo-ses and E-le-a-zar must count 
the peo-ple and see how ma-ny were fit to go to war. And 
they found that all those who had said they would not go 
in-to Ca-naan the first time were dead. But the two good 
spies, Ca-leb and Josh-u-a, lived yet as the Lord had said. 

The Lord told Mo-ses that he must send out men to 
fight the Mid-i-an-ites, who had led his peo-ple to bow 
down to false gods. So they went forth, and the Lord 
made them gain the fight, and they slew hosts of the foe. 
They took their goods and burnt their towns with fire. 
When they came back they found that not one of their 
own men had been slain. The gold and gems won from 
the foe were placed in the Lord's house and left there. 



96 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Then the Lord led the peo-ple to the banks of the riv-er 
Jor-dan. Then two of the tribes came to Mo-ses and told 
him they wished to stay where they were as it was a good 
land, and they had ma-ny flocks and herds. They did not 
want to go in-to Ca-naan. 

Mo-ses was not pleased with them for he thought they 
feared to fight the men of Ca-naan. And he said, "Shall 
your breth-ren go o-ver to war while you rest here." They 
said, " We will build sheep folds for our sheep here and 
hous-es to live in, but we who are men will go o-ver Jor- 
dan and help fight the na-tions and drive them out, but 
when that is done we will come back and have our homes 
on this side of the riv-er." Then Mo-ses said they might 
do this, and the land they liked was called Gil-e-ad. 

So these two tribes of Reu-ben and Gad built sheep 
folds and hous-es in Gil-e-ad, and half the tribe of Man- 
as-seh made their homes there too. 

The Lord told Mo-ses that when the chil-dren of Is-ra-el 
went in-to Ca-naan, they must drive out the peo-ple and 
cast down all the false gods and take the land for their 
own. Each man was to have a piece of land where he 
might build, and plant grain, and feed his flocks. They 
must not let one of those who bowed down to false gods 
live, lest they might be led in-to sin. Then the Lord would 
drive them out as He now meant to do with those who 
did hot serve him. 

The Lord named the men who were to give each tribe 
its share of land. The Le-vites were to have no land, but 
cit-ies were giv-en them to live in. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 97 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE DEATH OF MOSES. 

Mo-ses knew that he could not lead the peo-ple in-to 
the land of Ca-naan. He must die as the Lord had said, 
lor he had sinned at the rock. He feared the Is-ra-el-ites 
would not think of how they had been led through the 
des-ert. He talked to them for the last time and brought 
back to their minds all the things God had done for 
them. 

He asked the Lord to choose a man to take his place, 
lest if they had no guide to lead them they might be lost 
as sheep with no shep-herd. The Lord said Josh-u-a 
should lead them. 

Mo-ses told the peo-ple they must keep the laws of God 
and teach their chil-dren to do so at all times ; and they 
must talk to them of God, so that they would learn to love 
Him. 

And when the Lord led them in-to Ca-naan and grave 
them all the great cit-ies that they had not built, and wells 
that they had not digged, and vine yards and o-live trees 
which they had not plant-ed, they must think of the Lord 
and how much He had done for them. He had led them 
for long years and fed them, and their clothes had not 
grown old and their feet had not been sore by the way. 
He had brought them out of that place to this good land 
full of streams, where the wheat grew and grapes and all 



98 THE BIBLE STORY. 

sorts of fruit They should not want. They would find 
brass and i-ron if they dug in the ground and could make 
tools and all sorts of things for their use. 

Their flocks and herds would do well in that land, and 
they would grow rich, but they must not think they had 
gained all these things by their own might. They must 
keep in mind that the Lord their God had giv-en them 
all. If they did not serve Him, but took oth-er gods, 
they would be served in the same way as He meant to 
serve the na-tions that lived in sin. 

Mo-ses told them they must soon cross the Jor-dan and 
the Lord would lead them. The peo-ple of the land 
might try to keep them out but He would make them 
win. Though they had sinned in the des-ert, He was still 
their God. 

The land of Ca-naan was a place of streams. E-gypt 
had one riv-er, the Nile, which flowed o-ver its banks once 
a year so that the fields near it bore much fruit. But the 
soil far off was dry, and men had to car-ry wa-ter to it, so 
that the grass and plants might grow. In Ca-naan rain 
fell and corn and wheat and grass grew well, and vines 
and all sorts of fruit were found there. 

The peo-ple of Ca-naan had set up their false gods on 
hills and un-der trees in all parts of their land. They had 
built al-tars and burnt up their own chil-dren on them. 
Mo-ses told the chil-dren of Is-ra-el that they must pull 
down all these pla-ces and break the false gods. And if 
one of the men of the land should try to make them kneel 
down to these false gods, he must be stoned to death. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 99 

If there was a poor man a-mong them, they must lend 
him what he need-ed and the Lord would bless them. 

They must keep some cit-ies where one who had killed 
a man by chance might hide. If he had meant to kill the 
man for hate, then he must be put to death. But if the 
thing was done by chance, and the friends of the dead 
man chased him to kill him, he might fly to one of these 
cit-ies. 

When he reached the gate, he must tell the guard what 
he had done. Then they would give him a place to stay. 
If the friends of the man whom he had killed came to ask 
for him, they would not give him up, as he had not meant 
to do wrong. But if a man who meant to kill came there, 
they were not to let him in, but he must be put to death 
for his sin. 

When they lived in the land each man must take the 
first of his grain and the first fruit that was ripe and bring 
them to the Lord's house. The priest would take these 
gifts and set them down in front of the al-tar. The man 
must say, 'I have brought the first fruits of the land 
which Thou, O Lord, hast giv-en me." And he must 
pray to the Lord and leave all his gifts there for the use 
of the priests. 

The priests were to have no fields to raise grain or fruit 
of their own, so the first fruits of the land must be brought 
to them each vear. 

Mo-scs told them that on the day they should go o-ver 
Jor-dan they must raise a great pile of stones, and on 
these they must smear soft clay, and write all the laws of 



ioo THE BIBLE STORY. 

God on this clay. When it grew hard, all who went by- 
could read the law of God on it. 

Mo-ses told them that if they kept the law of God, 
He would bless them and all that was theirs. Their foes 
would flee from them. But if they sinned, their fields 
should not bring forth grain, for lo-custs should eat it, and 
their vines would not bring forth grapes. He would send 
plagues on them and foes who would not spare them but 
would make them slaves. 

Mo-ses said he had now set two ways be-fore them, and 
he begged them to take the good way so that they might 
live. He told them he could not £0 with them in-to that 
land, but Josh-u-a would lead them. And he called Josh- 
u-a and told him. Then the Lord came in a pil-lar of 
cloud and said that Josh-u-a was to lead his peo-ple when 
Mo-ses should die. 

Then Mo-ses wrote down all the laws which God had 
oiv-en him in a book, and he said thev must be read loud 
to all the peo-ple once in sev-en years. 

He gave the book to the Le-vites, that it might be kept 
in the ark. 

Then God spoke to Mo-ses, and told him to go up to 
the top of a high mount called Ne-bo. From this place 
he could see the land of Ca-naan. There he died, and the 
Lord bur-ied him in the land of Mo-ab. No one knew 
where his grave was made : 

" For the angels of God up-turned the sod 
And laid the dead man there ! " 

He was one hun-dred and twen-ty years old when he 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



101 




CBiufUSCUNEIOEH. 



THE LORD SHOWS MO-SES THE LAND OF CA-NAAN. 



died, yet the Lord had kept him strong and well all that 
time. 

Then Josh-u-a led the chil-dren of Is-ra-el, and the Lord 
made him wise, so that he could guide them in the right 
way. But God did not talk with him face to face as He 
had done with Mo-scs. 



102 THE BIBLE STORY. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE SUN STANDS STILL. 



The Lord's word came to Josh-u-a that he should lead 
the chil-dren of Is-ra-el in-to the land of Ca-naan. He 
would help them and they need not fear their foes if they 
kept His law. 

So Josh-u-a said to his chief men, '' Go through the 
camp and tell the peo-ple to take food for three days, for 
they shall pass o-ver Jor-dan." 

And he sent two spies to look at the land. They crossed 
the stream to a town called Jer-i-cho and stopped at the 
house of a wo-man named Ra-hab. 

Then some one told the king of this, and he sent to the 
house and said that Ra-hab must bring out the men. But 
the wo-man took them up to the roof of the house and 
hid them un-der some flax that had been left there to dry. 

So they were not found. Ra-hab told the men she had 
heard how the Lord had made the chil-dren of Is-ra-el 
cross the Red Sea on dry ground, and how He had 
helped them in the fight with their foes. She knew that 
God would give them the land, and she begged that when 
they came to take the cit-y of Jer-i-cho they would think 
of her, and save her life and the lives of those who were 
dear to her. 

The men said they would do this if she would tell no 
one what she knew of them. 



THE BIJ3LE STORY. 



\0'- 



They told her she must tie a red cord to the win-dow of 
her house, so they would know it when they came in to 
take the town. Then no one in it should be harmed. 

Now her house stood near the wall of the town, and it 
was high, so that there was a win-dow o-ver the wall. The 
gates of the town were shut by the king so that they could 
not go out. But Ra-hab let them down by a cord out- 
side the wall, and told them to hide for three days in a 




KA-IIAII A 1 1 >S THE SPIES TO ES-CAPE. 



104 THE BIBLE STORY. 

mount-ain near by, till the king's men gave up the search. 
This they did, and then went back to Josh-u-a and told 
him all that had passed. 

Then Josh-u-a and all the peo-ple rose up at dawn and 
came to the bank of the nv-er. They stayed there three 
days and then Josh-u-a said that they would start the next 
day and the Lord would do great things for them. 

" For the priests shall car-ry the ark o-ver Jor-dan be- 
fore you, and it shall be that as soon as their feet stand in 
the riv-er the wa-ter shall cease to flow and the priests 
shall walk o-ver on dry ground." 

All came to pass as Josh-u-a had said. The priests 
took up the ark, and all the peo-ple went aft-er. As soon 
as their feet touched the wa-ter it part-ed and made a dry 
path for them all to go o-ver. 

And when they were all on the oth-er side, the riv-er 
flowed back as be-fore. 

They made their camp at a place called Gil-gal, and 
found some corn there which they parched and ate. Then 
the Man-na ceased. The Lord had sent it to them when 
they were in the des-ert, but now they were in a land 
where grain grew and they did not need it. Josh-u-a went 
out of the camp to look at the land, and came near to the 
walls of Jer-i-cho. And he saw a man on the wall with a 
drawn sword in his hand. 

And Josh-u-a spoke to him and asked, " Art thou for 
us or for our foes?" 

The man said, " As cap-tain of the Lord's ar-my am I 
come." 



THE BIBLE STORY. io5 

Then Josh-u-a bowed down to the earth for he knew 
that the Lord spoke to him. 

The gates of the cit-y were shut, so that they could not 
go in, but the Lord told Josh-u-a in what way he could 
take the cit-y. Their men of war must march round the 
cit-y once a day for six days, and the priests must bear the 
ark with them. 

Sev-en more priests must blow on ram's horns. The 
sev-enth day they were to march sev-en times, and the 
priests were to blow on the trump-ets made of ram's horns 
a great blast. When they heard this they must shout with 
all their might, and the walls of the cit-y would fall down 
so they could go in. 

The Lord said that all the peo-ple of the cit-y must be 
put to death but the wo-man who had hid the spies and 
her fam-i-ly. All the gold and gems and spoils they found 
must be giv-en to the Lord. No man could keep what he 
found for his own or the Lord would pun-ish him. 

So the peo-ple did as the Lord said. On the sev-enth 
day, when they marched round the cit-y for the last time, 
the priests blew on the ram's horns and Josh-u-a said, 
" Shout for the Lord has giv-en you the cit-y ! " 

Then a great shout went up, and the walls of the cit-y 
fell flat, and they went in and took it. And Josh-u-a sent 
the spies to bring out all that were in Ra-hab's house so 
that they should be safe. Then he took all the sil-ver 
and gold and put it in the ark of the Lord and burned 
the cit-y. 

Josh-u-a then sent out his spies to look at the next town 



io6 



THE BIBLE STORY 




THE FALL OF THE WALLS OF JER-I-CHO. 



which was called Ai. They came back and told him it 
was a small place and a few men could take it. So Josh- 
u-a sent a small force, but the men of Ai came out and 
fought them and killed some of them and the rest fled. 

When Josh-u-a heard this he rent his clothes and bowed 
down his face to the earth for grief. He cried to the 
Lord, and said, " All the peo-ple of Ca-naan will hear how 
the chil-dren of Is-ra-el have fled, and they will kill us." 

The Lord told him to rise. He said that the chil-dren 



THE BIBLE STORY. 107 

of Is-ra-el had sinned, and that was why they could not 
win the fiorht. One of them had hid some of the sil-ver 
and gold he had found in Jer-i-cho, in place of giv-ing it 
to the Lord. That man must be burned with fire, with all 
that he had, or the Lord would not help them. So Josh-u-a 
rose up ear-ly, and called out all the peo-ple, and the Lord 
showed him the man who had done this thino-. His name 
was A-chan. Josh-u-a said, " Do not hide what thou 
hast done. Tell me!" 

The man said. that he had seen a rich robe in Jer-i-cho, 
and some gold coin, and he had hid them in the ground 
un-der his tent. 

Then Josh-u-a sent men to A-chan's tent, and they 
found the things where they were hid. And they brought 
them to Josh-u-a, who took them. 

Then A-chan and his sons and daugh-ters were stoned 
to death, and then burned with his tent and the beasts he 
owned. A great heap of stones was raised to show the 
place. Then the Lord helped the chil-dren of Is-ra-el 
once more and said, " Fear not, for I will give thee the 
cit-y of Ai and the king of that land." 

The Lord said they must put all the peo-ple to death 
for their sins, but they could keep the sil-ver and gold 
they found there. 

So Josh-u-a chose some brave men whom he sent to 
hide at the back of the town of Ai while the rest marched 
with him to the front. 

The king saw him, and took his troops out of the town 
to fio-ht him. Then the men from the rear marched in 



10S THE BIBLE STORY. 

and set the cit-y on fire. So the men of Ai had the fire 
at the back of them and Josh-u-a's troops in front of 
them. They could not fly and they were all put to death 
as the Lord had said. 

And Josh-u-a built an al-tar of stones near there on a 
mount-ain, and he put clay on it and wrote on it the laws 
of God. All the men of the land heard how they had 
dealt with Ai, and met to see what could be done. There 
was one cit-y named Gib-e-on where they thought of a way 
they might keep from war. They put on old clothes and 
worn out shoes and took stale bread with them, as if they 
had come a long way. When they reached the camp of 
Josh-u-a, they said to him, " We live far from Ca-naan, 
and we have heard the great things that God has done 
for you. We wish that you would be our friends." 

Now Josh-u-a did not ask the Lord what he must do, 
but said at once that thev would be friends. W 7 hen he 
heard that they had told lies, he sent for them and asked 
them why they had done this thing. They said they 
feared for their lives. So Josh-u-a could not put the peo- 
ple of Gib-e-on to death, as he had told them they should 
live, but he made slaves of them. They had to work for 
the priests and car-ry wa-ter and cut wood for the al-tar. 

There were five kings who called out troops to fight the 
peo-ple of Gib-e-on, be-cause they had made friends with 
Josh-u-a. But the men of Gib-e-on begged Josh-u-a to 
come to their help, and he did so with all the men of war. 
And the kings and their troops fled, and the Lord sent 
great hail-stones down on them, so that ma-ny were killed. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



109 



But while they fled it grew more dark, for it was time 
for the sun to set. Josh-u-a thought they would get off in 
the night, so he spoke to the sun and bade it not go down. 
And the sun stood still, and that was a long day. God 




JOSH-U-A BIDS THE SUN TO STAND STILL. 



let the sun shine so that they could see their foes. At 
last the kings and their men hid in a great cave. When 
Josh-u-a heard of this he said, " Roll great stones to the 



no THE BIBLE STORY. 

mouth of the cave, and set men to watch it, while you go 
on and find the rest of the foe." 

When they came back the five kings were brought out 
and put to death. Then the sun went down, and the dead 
bod-ies were cast back in-to the cave, and great stones 
rolled in the mouth of it. 

Then Josh-u-a cast lots for the tribes to see what part of 
land each might have. 

And he chose cit-ies of ref-uge, and some for the priests 
and Le-vites to have for their own. Now the two tribes 
and a half that were to live in Gil-e-ad had fought all this 
time with the chil-dren of Is-ra-el, and had a share of all 
the spoil won in the war. They were rich and Josh-u-a 
told them that he would now give them leave to go to 
their homes. But they were to take care to keep God's 
laws and serve him. 

So the men went back, and when they came to the bank 
of the riv-er they built a great al-tar there, shaped like the 
one in the ark of God. Now God had said they must 
have no oth-er al-tar than the one He had caused them to 
build. So the chil-dren of Is-ra-el sent a priest to know 
why these tribes had done this thing. They said they did 
not mean to sin, but had raised this al-tar for fear that in 
the days to come it might be thought that they did not 
be-long to the chil-dren of Is-ra-el. The al-tar was to show 
that they had a right to go o-ver the riv-er and pray with 
the rest to the God of Is-ra-el. 

Then Phin-e-as the priest, and the princes were glad, 
and went back and told the rest all these things. 



THE BIBLE STORY. hi 

« 

Now Josh-u-a felt that his end was near and he called 
his peo-ple to him, and told them how good the Lord 
had been. 

They had the land to live in, and all its cit-ies and fields 
and woods. Josh-u-a said, " Fear the Lord and serve 
Him. Choose this day whom ye will serve, but as for 
me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 

The peo-ple said, " God for-bid that we should leave the 
Lord to serve i-dols. For it was He who brought us up 
out of E-gypt and gave us this land. There-fore will we 
al-so serve the Lord for He is our God." 

Then Josh-u-a took a great stone and set it up by the ark 
of the Lord to keep them in mind of what they had said. 

Then it came to pass that Josh-u-a died, and they made 
his grave in the part of the land that was his own. The 
dead bod-y of Jo-seph which they had brought from E-gypt, 
they laid in the grave at She-chem. 



CHAPTER XV. 

GID-E-ON AND THE ELEECE. 

The chil-dren of Is-ra-el did not drive out all the peo- 
ple of the land as the Lord had said. And God was not 
pleased with them and said, " I will not drive them out 
a-ny more from be-fore you, but those that are left will stay 
in the land and tempt you to sin." 

They wept at these words, but in time they thought of 



ii2 THE BIBLE STORY. 

them no more and made friends with those that were left 
in the land. They took their wo-men for wives, and their 
daugh-ters mar-ried their sons. At last some of the chil- 
dren of Is-ra-el learned to bow down to these o-ods and 
the Lord was wroth with them. He sent foes on them 
who took them and made them slaves. But when they 
cried to the Lord for help, he pit-ied them and sent men 
to lead them out to war and make them free. But as soon 
as they were free they sinned once more. The men who 
ruled them were called Judg-es. 

At one time the king of Mo-ab made war on them. 
Their judge was named E-hud and he was left hand-ed. 
He hid a dao-aer and went to the kino- of Mo-ab's house. 
And E-hud said, "I have a word from God to speak to 
thee, O king." 

So the rest were sent out and when no one else was 
there E-hud took out the dao--o-er and stab-bed the kino- 
so that he fell dead. 

Then E-hud fled in haste. But first he locked the doors. 
No one knew what he had done, and the king's men, when 
they saw the doors shut, thought that their lord wished to 
be a-lone. But aft-er a long time they o-pened the doors, 
and saw that their kino- was dead. 

E-hud went to the land of Ca-naan and blew a trump 
to call the chil-dren of Is-ra-el. He led them to fight the 
men of Mo-ab, and the Lord made them win, and the 
chil-dren of Is-ra-el were set free. 

But they sinned once more, and the king of Ca-naan 
took them and made them his slaves. Then the Lord 



THE BIBLE STORY. 113 

chose a wo-man to be judge. Her name was Deb-o-rah. 
She sent for a man called Ba-rak and told him he must 
go out with troops and fight Sis-e-ra the cap-tain of the 
king- of Ca-naan's men. But he feared to jjo if Deb-o-rah 
did not go with him. She said she would go, but he would 
not have the fame of it for Sis-e-ra would die by the hand 
of a wo-man. 

So Ba-rak took his for-ces and Deb-o-rah went with 
him. Sis-e-ra brought all the men he could find, but the 
Lord was not on his side. They fled, and Ba-rak went 
aft-er them. Sis-e-ra got down out of his char-i-ot and 
fled on foot. 

He came to a tent where a wo-man lived named Ja-el. 
He did not know she was a friend to the chil-dren of Is- 
ra-el, and he begged her for a drink. She took a, bot-tle 
of milk and gave him some. 

Then he said, " Stand in the door of thy tent and if 
a-ny one asks if there is a man here, say, ' No."' So he 
went in and lay down to sleep. 

Then Ja-el took a lar^e nail such as was used to hold 
down the side of the tent. She went to Sis-e-ra, and drove 
the nail through his head so that he died. 

When Ba-rak came to seek Sis-e-ra, she led him in the 
tent and showed him the man dead. So the chil-dren of 
Is-ra-el were set free by the hand of a wo-man as Deb-o- 
rah had said. 

But as soon as they were free they sinned once more, 
and the Lord let the Mid-i-an-ites take them for slaves. 
They had to serve them for for-ty years. They drove them 



ii 4 THE BIBLE STORY. 

out of their homes and they had to live in dens and caves 
and the grain was kept from them so they had no food. 

Now there was a man named Gid-e-on who went to 
thresh out some wheat one day and tried to hide it from 
their foes. The Lord came to him in the form of an 
an-gel, and spoke kind words to him. 

Then Gid-e-on told the Lord all the peo-ple had to bear 
and the Lord said, " Thou shalt set the peo-ple free. I 
will be with thee, and thy foes shall fall as one man." 

Then Gid-e-on said, " Stay, I pray thee, that I may 
bring thee an of-fer-ing." And he went and killed a kid 
and brought it to Him. The Lord told him to lay it on 
a rock, and he did so. Then the Lord touched the flesh 
with his staff and fire came out of the rock and burnt it 
up. Then the Lord was no more seen. 

So the troops of Mid-i-an came and made their camp in 
a vale called Jez-reel. Gid-e-on blew his. trump-et to call 
out the peo-ple to fight them. Then he asked the Lord 
to give him a sign that He would help him. He said he 
would lav a fleece of wool on the ground, and let it stay 
there all night. If it was wet with dew when day came 
and all the rest of the ground was dry, he would know 
that the Lord would set them free. 

Gid-e-on did as he had said, and when it was light he 
found that his fleece was so wet that he could wring a 
bowl of wa-ter out of it, but all the rest of the ground 
was dry. 

Still Gid-e-on wished to try once more, and he begged 
the Lord to show him by a new way that He meant him 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



I 10 




GID-E-ON S OF-FER-ING IS BURNT BY FIRE FROM THE ROCK. 



to lead the peo-ple. He said he would put the fleece out, 
and leave it all night, and then if it were dry and all the 
rest of the ground wet he would be sure that the Lord 
would help him when he went out to fight. 

So he left the fleece, and found it in the morn-ing dry, 
while all the rest of the ground was wet with dew. 

Then he rose and took all the for-ces of Is-ra-el and 
inarched on the camp of Mid-i-an. 

But the Lord told him not to take all his men, for then 
if they won they would think' it was of their own strength 
they had done it. lie must tell all those who felt the 
least fear to £0 hack to their homes. Gid-e-on did so and 



n6 THE BIBLE STORY. 

there were ma-ny who left him. But the Lord said there 
was still too large a force. And he told Gid-e-on to take 
them down to the wa-ter *and He would show him who 
were to go. 

So Gid-e-on led them to the stream. They felt thirst-y 
and some stooped down and drank, and some lift-ed the 
wa-ter in their hands. The Lord told Gid-e-on to take 
all those who drank out of their hands and let the rest 
go home. 

The Mid-i-an-ites had a great force that lay all a-long 
the val-ley, while Gid-e-on had but three hun-dred men. 
The Lord told him, if he feared to go with so few, to take 
a man in the night and go near the camp of the foe so 
that he might hear what they said. Gid-e-on did so 
and he heard them tell of their dreams. One said, "I 
saw in my dream a bar-ley loaf that fell in our camp and 
struck a tent and threw it down." The man who heard 
him said, "That bar-ley loaf means the sword of Gid-e-on 
for the Lord is oro-ine to give all our host in-to his hand." 

Gid-e-on heard this and called his men to rise and come, 
for the Lord would help them win the fight. He set them 
in three parts and gave each man a trump-et and a pitch-er 
with a light in it. He told them they must watch him 
and do just as he did when they reached the camp of 
the foe. 

So they got to the camp in the night. And Gid-e-on 
blew on his trump-et, and broke the pitch-er with a cry, 
" The sword of the Lord and of Gid-e-on." The rest all 
did the same, and it made a great noise. The peo-ple of 



THE BIBLE STORY. 117 

Mid-i-an were so a-fraid they cried out and fled. They 
did not know friend from foe in their fright, and killed 
each oth-er as they ran. 

Gid-e-on chased them to the riv-er Jor-dan and took 
what was left as slaves. So the Is-ra-el-ites were made free. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

jeph-thah's daugh-ter. 

But in time the Is-ra-el-ites for-got all the Lord had 
done for them, and when Gid-e-on was dead they turned 
once more to i-dols. They set up a false god called 
Ba-al. The son of Gid-e-on, who did not walk in the ways 
of his fa-ther, went to She-chem and asked the peo-ple 
there to make him their king. They did so, and gave him 
much sil-ver, so that he hir-ed bad men to go with him to 
kill all his broth-ers. But the young-est got a-\vay. 

This bad son's name was A-bim-e-lech and he ruled 
three years. But God made the peo-ple hate him, so that 
they laid a plot to kill him. One of the head men was 
his friend and sent him word of this and told him to hide 
with his peo-ple in a field so that he could hght those 
who came a-gainst him He did this, and when the men 
of She-chem came out he drove them back, and fought 
ail day in the streets of the cit-y, and killed ma-ny. 

Then some of the men of She-chem fled to the tcm-ple 
of their i-dol, Ba-al, where no one could reach them. 



nS THE BIBLE STORY. 

Then A-bim-e-lech took an axe, and went out and cut 
down the branch of a tree, and told all his men to do the 
same. They all piled up the branch-es at the door of the 
i-dol's house and set fire to them. So it was burned and 
all the men in it. 

Then A-bim-e-lech went to take a town named The-bez. 
The peo-ple fled to a high tow-er, and he came near the 
door to set fire to it. But a wo-man threw down a piece 
of mill-stone and it fell on his head. When he found that 
he must die, he said to one of his men, "Draw thy sword 
and slay me, that it be not said I was slain by a wo-man." 

The young man drew his sword and thrust it in his 
breast. So A-bim-e-lech died for his sins. 

The chil-dren of Is-ra-el still turned from the true God 
and bowed down to the false gods of the land. The 
Lord would not help them and they were once more 
made slaves. 

Then they cried to the Lord for help. But He' told 
them that He had set them free ma-riy times and that 
they still left Llim to serve false gods. Now let them 
go to those false gods and ask them to help them. But 
the peo-ple still cried to the Lord, and at last He had 
pit-y on them. 

1 he Am-mon-ites, whose slaves they were, came out 
a-gainst them, and the Is-ra-el-ites thought of a brave man 
named Jeph-thah whom they had treat-edso bad-ly that he 
had left his home. Now they sent word for him to come 
and lead them. But he said, " Did you not hate me ? 
Why then do you call on me now?" 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



119 



They told him that they want-ed him to lead them to 
fight the Am-mon-ites, and he should rule all the peo-ple 
of Gil-e-ad. 

So Jeph-thah went with them, and he sent word and 
asked the king of the Am-mon-ites why he had come to 
fight them. The king said they had tak-en his land and 
must give it back. 

Jeph-thah sent word to the king that the Lord gave the 
land to them and they would keep it. 

So the Am-mon-ites made read-y to fight, and Jeph-thah 
led his troops near their camp. And he made a vow to 




! 



JEPH-THAH AND HIS DAUGH-TER. 



120 THE BIBLE STORY. 

the Lord that if he won the fight he would of-fer up to 
him as a burnt of-fer-ing what came first out of his door 
to meet him. This was a wrong vow to make, but as he 
had made it to the Lord he had to keep it. 

So the fio-ht was fought and the Is-ra-el-ites won. 

o o 

Jeph-thah went to his home, and his on-ly child, a fair 
young girl, came out with great joy to meet him. When 
he saw her he rent his clothes in great grief, and told her 
of the vow. 

Then she said, "If thou hast made a vow un-to the 
Lord, do to me as thou hast said." 

The Lord did not wish that Jeph-thah should keep 
such a vow, but he thought he must. So he took his on-lv 
child and did with her as he had said, and all the young 
wo-men of Is-ra-el mourned for her. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE STO-RY OF SAM-SON. 



Once more the chil-dren of Is-ra-el sinned, and were 
made slaves by the Phil-is-tines. 

There was a good man by the name of Ma-no-ah who 
served the Lord with his wife. The Lord sent an an-gel 
to the wo-man to tell her that she would have a son who 
should set his peo-ple free. His hair must not be cut and 
he must not drink wine, and they must rear him to love 
and serve God. 



THE BIBLE ' IY 

Ma-no-ah s wife him that a mar V 

: her. She said He had the fa-. an an-gel, b» 
did not ask him whence he came.' 

Then Ma-r . -; ., Lord et the man of '. 

whom Thou d cist send Dome to us once more 
d .hat we shall d a ae child that shall 

S a the Lord heard him and sent the an-gel to the 
wo-man as she sat in the field. She made h a A ran 

and called her hus-band and told him who was the 

5c he went with her and asked Art thou the mar 
j 1 who spoke to the wo-ma H n." 

And the an-gel said, "Let thy wife Jc all that I 
her be-forr 

Ma-no-ah begged the man to stay and eat food with tnem, 
for he did not know he was an an-gel, but he would not 

Then Ma-no-ah took a kid and ot-fered it u; 
ffer-ing, and the an-gel went up ^ht in the 

r.t :':--:: 

Then Ma- 5a: We shall die for we h 

.II Go<L 

the Lord meant to kill n 
would not have let us the burnt offer-ir_ .old us 

we should have a son.' 

In due time the babe was born and they called his 
name Sam-son 

W hen he was grown, he loved a daugh-ter of the 
and wished to make her his wife. B 
ta-ther and moth-er did not want him to take for his wile 



12: 



THE BIBLE STORY 



one who served false gods, and they asked him if he could 
not find one in Is-ra-el. He would not give her up, but 
said, " Get her for me, for she pleas-es me well." 

So his fa-ther and moth-er went with him to the place 
where the maid whom he would wed lived. As he passed 
a place of vines, a young li-on came out and roared at 




SAM-SON AND THE LI-ON. 



Sam-son. The Lord gave him strength to kill it with his 
hands as if it had been a kid. 

Each time he saw the maid he loved her still more, and 
at last he went to take her for his wife. 

When he reached the spot where he had killed the li-on, 



THE BIBLE STORY. , 123 

he saw that a swarm of bees had made , hon-ey in its dead 
bod-y. He took some and ate it as he went on, and when 
he saw his moth-er and fa-ther he grave them some. 

Now he made a feast, as was the way when one took a 
wife in those days. It last-ed sev-en days, and some of the 
Phil-is-tines were there. Sam-son told them he would 
give them a rid-dle to guess. If they found it out ere the 
sev-en days were past, he would give them thir-ty suits of 
clothes, but if they failed, they must give him thir-ty suits. 
They said they would and he told them this: "Out of the 
eat-er came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth 
sweet-ness." He meant the hon-ey he had found in the 
li-on. The Phil-is-tines tried three days, and were not 
pleased that they could not find it out. They went to 
Sam-son's wife and said they would burn her fa-ther's 
house, and her too, if she did not help them to find out 
the rid-dle. 

So she coaxed Sam-son, and wept, and said he did not 
love her. He said he had not told his own fa-ther and 
moth-er. Still she wept all the time till at last he made it 
known to her, and she went straight and told her peo-ple. 

They made out that they had guessed it, and said, 
"What is sweet-er than hon-ey, and what is strong-er than 
a li-on ?" 

Then Sam-son knew what his wife had done. He went 
home, but his wife stayed with her peo-ple. God had 
made him so strong that he might set his peo-ple free. 

When the wheat was reaped Sam-son went to see his 
wife and took her a kid. But her fa-ther would not let 



124 THE BIBLE STORY. 

him come in the house. He told Sam-son he had giv-en 
her to be the wife of an-oth-er man. 

Then Sam-son was an-gry, and he caught three hun- 
dred fox-es, and tied bits of light-ed wood to their tails, 
and let them loose in the fields. The grain was set on fire 
and the grape vines and ol-ives were burned. The Phil-is- 
tines found out that it was Sam-son who had done this 
and they threw his fa-ther and moth-er in the fire. Sam-son 
fled to the top of a rock called E-tam. 

The Phil-is-tines came to take him, and the Is-ra-el-ites 
feared them. 

They went to Sam-son and asked him, " Know-est thou 
not that the Phil-is-tines rule o-ver us ? Why hast thou 
done these things?" 

Sam-son said the Phil-is-tines had done e-vil to him, and 
so he had done e-vil to them. 

Then the men of his own peo-ple told him they had 
come to bind him and give him up to his foes. Sam-son 
said they might bind him if they would not kill him. 

They told him they would not kill him, but they would 
bind him fast and give him up to the Phil-is-tines. 

So they bound him with two new cords. As they drew 
near their camp, the foe shout-ed with joy. 

Then God rave Sam-son strength to break the cords as 
if they had been threads burned by fire. And he found 
the jaw bone of an ass and fought with it, and slew a 
thou-sand of the Phil-is-tines. When he grew weak the 
Lord brought wa-ter out of the ground for him, and he 
drank and grew strong. 



THE BIBLE STORY. i 2 5 

At last he came to a town called Ga-za, which was 
owned by the Phil-is-tines. When they heard he was in 
the town, they locked the gates and set a guard there, for 
they meant to kill him as soon as it was day. But Sam- 
son rose up in the night and took up the gates, posts and 
all, and put them on his back and left them on the top 
of a hill. 

Now the chief men of the Phil-is-tines longed to find 
out why Sam-son was so strong, and they went to a friend 
of his, a wo-man named De-li-lah, and said they would 
give her a great sum of mon-ey if she could find out. 
She was not a true friend, so she begged Sam-son to tell 
her what made him so strong. He did not wish to tell 
her, but he said if he were bound with sev-en green withes, 
or slim switch-es from trees, he could not break them. 

Now De-li-lah had some Phil-is-tines hid in the house, 
and they brought her the green withes, and she bound 
Sam-son with them. When he was bound she cried, 
"The Phil-is-tines are up-on thee Sam-son." But he broke 
them as if they had been threads. 

Then once more the wo-man begged him to tell her how 
to bind him. He told her that two new ropes which had 
not been used would do it. She tried them, but when 
she called the Phil-is-tines he broke them at once. 

Then once more she begged him to tell her and he said 
if she would braid his long hair in a cer-tain way, the 
strength would go out of him. But when the Phil-is-tines 
came he was as strong as be-fore. 

Then she told him he had mocked her three times, and 



126 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



she let him have no rest till at last he told her. He said 
that his hair had not been cut since he was born, but if it 
were cut off he would not be more strong 1 than oth-er men. 
De-li-lah saw that he spoke the truth. So she sent for 
the Phil-is-tines and told them to bring their gold So 
when Sam-son slept, a man shaved his head. Then she 
cried, "The Phil-is-tines are up-on thee, Sam-son," and he 
woke. He went out to meet them, for he did not know 
that his strength was gone, and they took him and bound 
him with chains. Then they put out his eyes so that he 




SAM-SOX IS CAUGHT AND BOUND BY HIS FOES. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 127 

was blind and they shut him up in pris-on and made him 
grind their corn. 

Then Sam-son cried to the Lord, and He had mer-cy on 
him, and his hair grew and his strength came back to him. 

One day the Phil-is-tines made a feast to Da-gon, their 
God, and they said, " Send for Sam-son that he may make 
sport for us." 

So the poor blind man was brought and set down by 
the posts of the house of their i-dol. He was led there 
by a boy, for he could not see how to go. Now the house 
was full of peo-ple, and there were ma-ny on the roof. 
Sam-son asked the boy to let him feel the posts that he 
might lean on them. Then he prayed to God and said, 
" O Lord, give me strength once more," and he put each 
arm round a post. He said, " Let me die with the Phil-is- 
tines," and he bowed down with all his might, till the posts 
moved, and the house fell, and all were killed. Sam-son 
died too, but he had slain more of the foe in his death 
than he had done in all his life. 

The chil-dren of Is-ra-el took the dead bod-y and laid 
him with his fa-ther. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE STO-RY OF RUTH 



There was a man of the chil-dren of Is-ra-el who had 
irone to live in Mo-ab for a while. He had a wife and 
two sons. The man died and his sons took wives in 



128 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Mo-ab. Then, in ten years, they died too. So the moth- 
er wished to go back to her own land. 

When her sons' wives heard this they wept. One of 
them, named Or-pah, kissed her and went to her own 
home, but Ruth said she would not leave her. "Where 
thou go-est I will go, and where thou liv-est I will live. 
Thy peo-ple shall be my peo-ple, and thy God my God. 
Where thou di-est I will die, and there will I be bur-ied." 

When Na-o-mi saw how Ruth loved her she let her go 
with her to the land of Ca-naan. They reached Na-o-mi's 
old home at the time when the fields of bar-ley were ripe. 

And Na-o-mi found one of her kin, a rich man named 
Bo-az, who had great fields of grain. Ruth said, " Let 
me go out in the fields and glean ears of corn." The 
Lord had said those who reaped must leave some for the 
poor, who could pick up what was left. This was what 
it meant to glean. Now Na-o-mi was poor, so she gave 
Ruth leave to go and glean. 

Now she was in one of the fields of Bo-az when he 
came to look at the men's work. He saw Ruth and asked, 
"Who is this?" They told him that she had come with 
Na-o-mi out of Mo-ab. 

Then Bo-az spoke some kind words to Ruth. He told 
her she could glean in all his fields and need go no where 
else. When she thirst-ed, his young men would draw 
wa-ter for her. Ruth bowed down to the ground and 
asked Bo-az why he was so kind. He said he had heard 
how she had left her own land and home and friends to 
stay with Na-o-mi and that God would re-ward her. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



129 




RUTH AND BO-AZ 



And he told her that she might eat and drink with his 
peo-ple at meal time, and she did so. And Bo-az told his 
young men to let fall some ears of corn for her, and some 
bar-ley. So she gleaned in the field till it was night, and 
then beat out the grain she had gleaned and took it home. 

When Na-o-mi saw how much she had brought she 
was glad, and asked who the man was who had been so 
kind to her. Ruth said his name was Bo-az. Then 
Na-o-mi knew that he was near kin to her, and she told 
Ruth to do all that he said. So Ruth went to glean till 
the grain was all reaped. 

Then Na-o-mi said that Bo-az meant to thresh out the 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



grain that night, and Ruth must go and say to him the 
words she would tell her. 

So Ruth went, and Bo-az threshed his bar-ley and then 
had a feast. Then Ruth came to him and spoke and told 
him he was their near-est kin, and begged him to be kind 
to her. 

He told her not to fear, he would give her all she 
need-ed, for he knew she was a good wo-man. And he 
said, " Bring here thy veil and hold it out," and he poured 
in it six meas-ures of bar-lev. Ruth took it to Na-o-mi 
and she told her to wait and see what Bo-az would do. 

It was the way in those days that when a man had 
made up his mind to do a thing, he sat down in the gates 
of the cit-y and spoke of it to the chief men. So the 
next dav Bo-az told them he meant to take Ruth for his 
wife. Then they prayed that the Lord would bless Ruth 
and Bo-az. Na-o-mi was glad of this good news. When 
Ruth was the wife of Bo-az, and a son was born, she took 
the lit-tle ba-by and nursed it for them. The child was 
named O-bed. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE STO-RY OF SAM-U-EL. 

There was a wo-man in the cit-y of Ra-mah wno went 
up each year to the ark at Shi-loh to pray. She had no 
child and she asked the Lord to give her a son. She 
made a vow to God that if He would grant her wish, she 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



131 



would bring up her son to be the Lord's. Now E-li was 
high priest in those days, and he saw how she prayed and 
wept. He asked her the cause, and she told him she 
sought help from the Lord. He said, " Go in peace and 
may God give thee the wish of thy heart." 

So she was glad and went to her own home. In time 
the Lord sent her a son, and she called him Sam-u-el. 
She wait-ed till he was old e-nough, and then she took 
him to E-li and said ; " O my Lord. For this child I 
prayed and the Lord gave me what I asked, so I give 
him back to the Lord." And she left him to serve E-li 
in the house of the Lord. 




THE MO'IH-LK OF SAH-U-EL UKINGS IIIM 10 F.-LI. 



132 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Now E-li had two sons who were priests, but they were 
not good men.- They took more than their share of the 
gifts brought to the Lord. 

But Sam-u-el did right and the Lord loved him. Each 
year his par-ents came there to pray, and E-li said God 
would bless them, in that they had giv-en their son to 
the Lord. 

Now E-li was old, and he heard with grief of the 
wrong his sons did, but he let them be priests still. Then 
God was wroth with E-li, and said he should not be priest 
a-ny more and that both of his sons should die on the 
same day. 

Sam-u-el stayed on to serve him, and one night when 
he had lain down to sleep he heard a voice that called 
him. He said, " Here am I " and ran to E-li. Then 
E-li knew it was the Lord who had called the child, and 
he said, " Go lie down and if the voice call thee, say, 
'Speak Lord for thy serv-ant hear-eth.'" Sam-u-el did so, 
and then the Lord told to him what he meant to do to E-li 
and his sons. 

Sam-u-el rose up when it was day, but he feared to tell 
E-li the sad news. E-li called him and asked, " What is 
the thing the Lord hath said un-to thee? Hide it not 
from me." Then Sam-u-el told him all. 

When E-li heard it he said, " It is the Lord, let Him 
do what seem-eth Him good." 

The words of the Lord came true. The peo-ple went 
to fight the Phil-is-tines, and they thought they would win 
if they took the ark of the Lord with them. So the two 



THE BIBLE STORY. 133 

sons of E-li bore the ark. But the Lord taught them 
they must trust in Him and in noth-ing else. So the Phil- 
is-tines fought them, and slew ma-ny, and took the ark. 

The two sons of E-li were killed, A man ran from the 
ar-my to tell the bad news. E-li sat by the road side to 
hear of the fight. When the man told those in the cit-y, 
they all cried out with fear. Now E-li was old, and his 
sight was dim, but he heard the cries and he said, "What 
means this noise?" 

Then the man ran to him and said, " I have come to 
day from the ar-my. The men of Is-ra-el have fled from 
the Phil-is-tines and ma-ny are slain. Thy two sons are 
dead and the ark of God is tak-en." 

When E-li heard this his grief was so great that he fell 
from his seat and his neck broke. So he died. 

The Phil-is-tines took the ark with them, but the Lord 
sent sick-ness to them, so that they were a-fraid and called 
their wise men to know how they should send it back. 
These men told the Phil-is-tines to take two cows, and put 
them to a cart, and lay the ark on it. Then they must let 
the cows draw it where they chose. If they went to the 
camp of Is-ra-el it would show that the Lord had meant 
them to send it back. But if the cows did not take the 
ark there, then they would know that all their woes had 
come just by chance. 

So the Phil-is-tines did as the wise men said, and as 
soon as the cows were loose they went straight to the camp 
of Is-ra-el. There was great joy when the chil-dren of 
Is-ra-el first saw it. 



i 3 4 THE BIBLE STORY. 

The cows stopped in a field by a great stone that was 
there, and some men of the tribe of Le-vi took the ark 
down and set it on this stone. They broke the cart, and 
burnt the wood and of-fered up the cows to the Lord. 

Now E-li was dead and Sam-u-el was made judge 
The peo-ple sinned once more and bowed down to strange 
gods. Then the Phil-is-tines made war on them but 
Sam-u-el led them to a place called Miz-peh, and prayed, 
and the Lord heard him and sent a storm so that their foes 
fled. Sam-u-el set up a stone in that place and called it 
Eb-en-e-zer, which means, " The stone of help." 

Sam-u-el grew old, and he made his two sons judg-es 
to help him. But they did not do right, for they took 
bribes, or gifts, and would let men do wrong if they paid 
them for it. 

The chief men of Is-ra-el came to Sam-u-el and told 
him what his sons had done. They said he must choose 
them a king. Now the Lord was their king and it was 
wrong for them to ask such a thing. Sam-u-el prayed to 
the Lord to know what he should do. 

The Lord told him to tell the peo-ple that if they had 
a king he would take their sons to work for him in the 
fields, and their daugh-ters to serve him. He would take 
the best of all they had, and they would cry out to the 
Lord in that day, but the Lord would not hear them. 

Sam-u-el told them all this, but they still said, " We 
will have a king, that he may rule us and lead us to war 
iike the rest of the na-tions." 

So the Lord told Sam-u-el to choose them a king. 



THE BIBLE STORY. i 3 5 

Now there was a young man named Saul who was tall 
and well formed and hand-some. He had gone out to 
look for some ass-es that his fa-ther had lost. But as they 
could not be found he turned back to go home. When he 
reached a cit-y of that land, a man told him there was a 
proph-et there named Sam-u-el whose word al-ways came 
true. He said, " Let us go and ask him ; he may tell us 
of the assies." 

Now it was a feast day in that town, and when they 
went in, Sam-u-el met them. 

The Lord had told Sam-u-el that he would send him a 
man that day to be king of Is-ra-el. When he met Saul, 
the Lord said to him, "This is the man." 

. Saul did not know Sam-u-el, and he asked him where 
the proph-et lived. 

Sam-u-el said, "I am the proph-et" and he bade him 
come to his house with his serv-ant. He said Saul need 
not think of the ass-es, for his fa-ther had found them. 

So Sam-u-el gave Saul the best place at the feast, and 
he stayed there all that day. The next day at dawn 
Sam-u-el took Saul to the top of the house and talked 
with him. Then he went part of the way with him to the 
gate of the cit-y. 

It was the way in those days that when one was made 
king oil was poured on the head. So Sam-u-el poured oil 
on Saul's head, and he was made king, but the chil-dren 
of Is-ra-el did not know it till they were called to meet at 
Miz-peh. Then he hid from them at first, but when he 
was brought out they saw how tall he was, and Sam-u-el 



136 THE BIBLE STORY. 



said, " See the man whom the Lord hath chos-en, there 
is none like him." Then they all shout-ed, " God save 
the king." 

Now in one part of the land the Is-ra-el-ites had to 
fight with the Am-mon-ites, and they feared them. These 
peo-ple want-ed to make slaves of them and said they 
would put out their eyes. So the chil-dren of Is-ra-el sent 
to Gib-e-ah, where Saul lived, and told of their sad plight, 
and the peo-ple wept to hear it. Saul came in just then 
with a herd of cat-tie, and he asked, " Why do the peo- 
ple weep? " They told him and he took two ox-en and cut 
them up and sent the pie-ces all through the land with the 
word that " who-ev-er does not come to fight the Am-mon- 
ites, the same shall be done to his ox-en." So great crowds 
came, and Saul led them, and their foes were put to flight. 

Sam-u-el had grown old by this time, and he spoke 
to the peo-ple and said that they had sinned in that they 
want-ed a king when the Lord was their king, and they 
would see what the Lord would do to them. 

Now it was the time of wheat har-vest, and he called to 
the Lord to send a storm, that they might know that He 
was not pleased with them. So a great rain fell all that 
day on the ripe wheat, and the peo-ple all feared the Lord 
and begged Sam-u-el to pray that they might not be put 
to death. 

Sam-u-el told them not to fear. Though they had sin- 
ned, if they now would serve the Lord He would take 
care of them. But if they went aft-er strange gods they 
would per-ish. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 137 



CHAPTER XX. 

SAUL AND DA-VID. 

The Phil-is-tines rose up in their might when Saul had 
been, king for two years. When the Is-ra-el-ites saw so 
great a host they hid in caves and pits in the earth. Some 
few stayed with Saul, their king, and he led them to Gil- 
gal. Sam-u-el had said he would meet him there, and 
tell him what to do. But he did not come in sev-en days, 
and so Saul made a burnt of-fer-ing to the Lord. Sam-u-el 
came then and told Saul that he had done wrong, and that 
the Lord would not let him be king, but would choose 
a new man. 

Now the Is-ra-el-ites had been slaves to the Phil-is-tines 
for a long time, and there were no smiths in the land, for 
the Phil-is-tines feared that if they let a-ny stay there they 
would make for the peo-ple swords and spears, with which 
to fioht. And so it was that a-monsf all the Is-ra-el-ites none 
had a sword or a spear but Saul and his son Jon-a-than. 

In those times the men who fought bore shields made 
of wood with brass or i-ron on them, and kings and chiefs 
had young men to hold their shields and spears when they 
were not in use. These men were called ar-mor bear-ers. 

One day Jon-a-than called his ar-mor bear-er, and asked 
him to go with him to the camp of the Phil-is-tines, for 
who knew what the Lord might do for them. The young 
man said he would go. Jon-a-than said this would be the 



13S THE BIBLE STORY. 

way they might tell if the Lord would help them. They 
would eo and stand where the Phil-is-tines could see them, 
and if the foe called out to them and told them to wait 
they would take it for a sign that the Lord would not 
help them. But if the foe said, " Come up to us," they 
would know that God would make them win. 

So they did so, and the Phil-is-tines said, " See, they are 
com-ing out of their holes," and they called out, "Come up 
to us and we will show you some-thing." So Jon-a-than 
and his man climbed up the rocks and fought with the foe 
and killed twen-ty of them. God made the earth to heave 
so that the Phil-is-tines were in great fear. 

Now Saul did not know of this, but the guard looked 
out at the camp of the Phil-is-tines and saw that there was 
a fight there. They told Saul, and he count-ed his men and 
found that he missed Jon-a-than and his ar-mor bear-er. 
Then he took his men and went and joined in the fight, 
and those who were hid in caves and pits came out, and 
none tast-ed food that day. For Saul had said they must 
not take time to eat, but chase the foe while it was light. 

Now Jon-a-than did not know of this, so when they 
came to a place where the wild bees had made a nest in 
the trees and hon-ey dropped from it, he dipped the end 
of his staff in it and ate. Saul heard of this, and he was 
wroth, and said Jon-a-than must die. But the peo-ple cried 
out for him, and saved him, for they said he had caused 
them to put their foes to rout. 

Then the Lord sent the Is-ra-el-ites to fight the Am-a- 
lek-ites, and put them to death with all their flocks and 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



139 



herds. But Saul saved the best of the cat-tie a-live, and 
the Lord was not pleased, as he did not o-bey Him. 

Sam-u-el came and asked Saul a-bout it. But Saul said 
he had done as the Lord bade him. At the same time 
Sam-u-el heard the sheep bleat and the ox-en low. He 
asked Saul what this meant. Saul said the peo-ple had 
kept these to of-fer up to the Lord. Sam-u-el said, "It 
was bet-ter to o-bey than to of-fer up sac-ri-fl-ces." Then 
he told Saul once more that the Lord would not let him 
be king, but would put a man in his place. 

The Lord told Sam-u-el to go to Beth-le-hem to a man 




SAM-U-EL A-NOINTS DA-VI] 



i 4 o THE BIBLE STORY. 



named Jes-se, and take one of his sons for a king. But 
Sam-u-el feared that Saul would kill him. Then the Lord 
told him to 2:0 and make a burnt of-fer-ing there and ask 
Jes-se to come. Sam-u-el did so, and Jes-se came with his 
sons. They all passed in his sight, and he asked, " Are 
these all?" Jes-se said, "There is one left who tends the 
sheep ; he is the young-est." So Sam-u-el said, " Send for 
him." When he came he was fair to see and his cheeks 
were red. The Lord said to Sam-u-el, " A-noint him, for 
this is he." So the Lord chose Da-vid to be king and 
made him good and wise. 

Now Saul did not know of these things, but he was 
not at ease in his mind. He could not sleep, and he sent 
out to look for a man who could play the harp well, for he 
thought that might soothe him. It chanced that Da-vid 
was brought to play for him. He came and wait-ed on 
Saul and played for him and pleased him. He stayed 
there till Saul grew bet-ter and then he went back to his 
own home. 

Once more the Phil-is-tines brought a great host to 
fight Is-ra-el. Each na-tion pitched its camp on a mount- 
ain. There was a gi-ant with the Phil-is-tines named 
Go-li-ath of Gath. He wore a coat of brass and a helm-et 
on his head. He came out where all could see him and 
cried out, " Choose a man and let him come and fight me. 
If he kill me we will be your slaves, but if I kill him you 
shall be my slaves ! " 

Now the gi-ant was so great that no one was found to 
go out and fight him, and Saul was in great fear. Just 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



141 




DA-VID AND SAUL. 



then Da-v.id came to the camp to bring his three broth-ers 
some loaves of bread and corn, and to see how they were. 
He came just as the two ar-mies were go-ing to fight. For 
the Is-ra-el-ites had no man to meet the gi-ant, and they 
had to fight as best they could. 

Now while Da-vid talked with his broth-ers, the gi-ant 
came out once more and said the same words. If there 
was a man who could kill him, Saul said he would give him 
Great rich-cs and the king's daugh-ter should be his wife. 
Da-vid asked all a-bout it. E-li-ab, his eld-est broth-er, 
sneered and asked, "What brought you here, and where 
have you left those few sheep? You want to see the fight?" 



M2 THE BIBLE STORY. 



But Da-vid said, " What harm have I done to thee ? 
Who is this Phil-is-tine that he should de-fy the ar-mies 
of the liv-inor God ? " Some who heard these words told 
them to Saul and he sent for Da-vid. 

Da-vid said, " Let no man's heart be a-fraid. I will go 
and fiorht this Phil-is-tine." 

Saul said, "Thou art not a-ble, for thou art but a youth 
and he hath been a man of war from his youth." 

But Da-vid told how he had killed a li-on and bear, and 
saved a lamb of his flock, and he thought the Lord would 
help him. So Saul said, "Go and the Lord 'be with thee." 
And he gave him his own ar-mor, and his coat of mail 
and sword. But Da-vid said, " I can-not go with these," 
and he put them off. He took his staff and chose five 
smooth stones' from the brook, and he took his sling in his 
hand. When he came near the Phil-is-tmes' ranks, the 
gi-ant scorned him, for he looked like a boy. Go-li-ath 
said, " Am I a dog that thou com-est with a staff to me?" 
And he called on his false gods to curse Da-vid, and told 
him to come near that he miorht kill him. 

Then Da-vid said, " Thou com-est to me trust-ing in thy 
sword and spear. But I come to thee trust-ing in the God 
of Is-ra-el. For this day, He will give thee in-to my hand 
and I will kill thee, and cut off thy head from thee, and 
the Phil-is-tines shall be slain and their dead bod-ies shall 
lie on the oround and the birds of the air and the wild 
beasts of the field shall eat them. 

Then as Go-li-ath came on, Da-vid ran and took a stone 
out of his bag and slung it. It struck the gi-ant in the 



THE BIBLE, STORY. 



i43 







DA-VID SLAYS GO-LI-ATH. 



head with such force that it sank in and he fell. Then 
Da-vid took the gi-ant's sword from him and cut off his 
great head. When the Phil-is-tines saw this they fled, but 
the troops of Is-ra-el shouted and gave chase to them, and 
ma-ny fell by the way. All the gold and sil-ver and rich 
robes fell in-to the hands of the Is-ra-el-ites. 

Then Da-vid was brought to Saul, with the head of 
Go-li-ath in his hand. Saul asked him whose son he was, 
and Da-vid said, " I am the son of thy serv-ant, Jes-se, 
the Beth-le-hem-ite." 



i 44 THE B IB LE ST OR Y. 

Now Jon-a-than saw Da-vid and loved him as his own 
soul, and they were friends from that day. Saul kept 
Da-vid with him, and to show his love he took off the 
robe he wore and put it on Da-vid and gave him his 
sword and bow. 

But once when they had won a fight with the Phil-is- 
tines, and the wo-men came with son^ and dance to meet 
them, they praised Da-vid more than Saul. From that 
time Saul was not pleased, and the next time Da-vid 
played on the harp for him he tried to kill him with a 
spear. - But Da-vid stepped one side and his life was 
saved. Then Saul feared Da-vid, and sent him off with 
his troop. The Lord helped him and the ped-ple loved 
him. Saul sent him to fight the Phil-is-tines in the hope 
that they would kill him. He told Da-vid that if he won 
he would give him Me-rab, his daugh-ter, for his wife. 
Da-vid fought well, but Saul did not keep his word. He 
rave Me-rab to an-oth-er. Then his daughter Mi-chal 
loved Da-vid, and Saul found it out. He said that if 
Da-vid would kill a hun-dred Phil-is-tines he should have 
her for his wife. Da-vid did so, and this time Saul had 
to keep his word, but he hat-ed him still more. He laid 
plots to kill him, but Jon-a-than told Da-vid of them and 
begged him to go and hide. He said he would talk to 
his fa-ther. 

Jon-a-than plead-ed for Da-vid and told of all he had 
done, how he had saved Is-ra-el. Saul knew it all and 
at last he said Da-vid's life should be safe. So Jon-a- 
than told Da-vid and he came back to live in Saul's house 



THE BIBLE STORY. i 4 5 

once more and fought with the Phil-is-tines and gained the 
fight. Saul saw that the peo-ple loved Da-yid more than 
they did him, and he tried once more to kill him. Da-vid 
fled that night. 

Saul sent men to his house to take him, but Da-vid's 
wife let him down through a win-dow. Then she made 
up an im-age and laid it in his bed, so that he should have 
time to get off. They thought he slept, but when they 
went to take him they found him not, and Saul was wroth. 

Da-vid went to his friend Sam-u-el and told him all. 
Saul tried to take him but the Lord saved him. 

Then Da-vid went to Jon-a-than and asked, " What is 
my sin that thy fa-ther seek-eth to kill me?" 

Jon-a-than said, "Thou shalt not die," and he said he 
would do for Da-vid all he asked. 

Now there was to be a feast the next day at Saul's 
house, but Da-vid feared to go. He wished to stay a-way 
three days, and he told Jon-a-than to say to Saul if he 
asked for him that he had gone home to see his own peo- 
ple and to of-fer up the year-ly sac-ri-fice. If Saul was 
an-gry it would show he meant him harm. 

Jon-a-than told him he would do so, and at the end of 
the three days he must come and hide by a rock in the 
field there. He would come out with a lad and shoot at 
a mark. If he said when the lad went to pick the ar-rows 
up, "The ar-rows are on this side," then Da-vid would 
know that Saul would not harm him. But if lie said to 
the boy, "The ar-rows are be-yond," then Da-vid must fly 
for his life. 



10 



i 4 6 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Saul did not ask for Da-vid on the first day of the 
feast, but on the sec-ond day he said, " Why comes not 
Da-vid to eat?" 

Jon-a-than told him, and he was ver-y an-gry. He told 
Jon-a-than he would not be king when he should die if 
Da-vid were not put to death. When his son plead-ed 
for Da-vid he cast a spear at him. Then Jon-a-than would 
not eat, but went out and was grieved for Da-vid. 

On the third day he went as he had said with the boy. 
When he shot an ar-row that passed by the lad he cried, 
"The ar-row is be-yond thee — make haste," Da-vid knew 
then that Saul meant to kill him and he must fly. 

Jon-a-than sent off the lad and Da-vid came out and 
bowed down to the ground three times. But Jon-a-than 
kissed him and they both wept. They loved each oth-er 
so much that they vowed they would be kind to each 
oth-er al-ways and to each oth-er's chil-dren. So Da-vid 
fled, and Jon-a-than went back home. 

Now Da-vid went to a place called Nob where the ark 
of God was. But when the high priest sent to ask why 
he had come, he feared to tell the truth and said he was 
sent by the king. 

This was wrong in Da-vid, for he should have trust-ed 
in God. There were some young men who had joined 
Da-vid, and he asked that they should have five loav es of 
bread. The priest said he had no bread but that which 
was left on the gold-en ta-ble in the Lord's house. This 
was called shew-bread. So he sjave that to Da-vid. 
Then he asked the high priest for a sword or spear. There 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



H7 




DA-VID AND JON-A-THAN. 



was noth-ing there but the sword of Go-li-ath of Gath, 
whom Da-vid had slain, and the priest gave that to him. 

Then Da-vid went and hid in a cave. His broth-ers 
heard of it and came to him, and more friends joined him 
there. He asked the kine of Mo-ab to let his fa-ther and 
moth-er live in that land till he should see what the Lord 
would do for him. He used to think of the days of his 
youth while he lived in that cave, and of the well by the 
gate where the wa-ter had tast-ed so sweet to him. Once 
he said, " Oh that some one would give me a drink from 
the well by the gate at Beth-le-hem." Three of his men 
loved him so much that they broke through the camp of 



148 THE BIBLE STORY. 

the Phil-is-tines and got some of the wa-ter. But when 
Da-vid knew they had risked their lives for it, he would 
not drink it. 

Then there was a proph-et who came to Da-vid and 
told him to £ out of the cave and go back to the land 
of Ju-dah. 

Saul was there, and one told him how the high priest 
had giv-en Da-vid the sword of Go-li-ath and the shew- 
bread. Saul sent for that high priest and asked him why 
he had done this and helped Da-vid rise up a-gainst him. 
The high priest said he did not know that Da-vid had fled 
from Saul. Saul was ver-y an-gry and told his men to 
slay the high priest and all his fam-i-ly. But the men 
feared to do so. Then he found one bad man who would 
do it and he went to the high priest's home and slew him 
and all there, but one son. This son's name was A-bi-a- 
thar, and he went to Da-vid and told him all. Da-vid 
kept him with him and said no one should harm him. 

Then Da-vid heard that the Phil-is-tines were at Kei-lah, 
and he asked the Lord what he should do. The Lord 
told him to go and fight them and save the place. He 
did so and saved Kei-lah. 

Saul heard of this and thought that now he could take 
Da-vid. He called his troops and Da-vid heard of it. 
He asked the Lord if Saul would come to Kei-lah. The 
Lord said, "He will sure-ly come." Then Da-vid asked 
if the peo-ple would fight for him or if they would give 
him up. And the Lord said, "They will give thee up." 

So Da-vid fled and hid in a wood. Jon-a-than went to 



THE BIBLE STORY. 149 

see him there, and spoke kind words to him. He said, 
" Fear not ! Saul will not find thee, and thou shalt yet be 
king of Is-ra-el." And they vowed once more to be strong 
friends. 

Each time Saul tried to harm Da-vid, the Lord saved 
him. Once Saul went in-to the ver-y cave where Da-vid 
was hid-den. It was dark there, and Da-vid might have 
killed Saul, but he would not. He went up ver-y soft-ly 
and cut off a piece of his robe, but Saul did not know it. 

When Saul went out, Da-vid came forth and cried, 
" My Lord, the king." Saul turned and Da-vid fell on 
his face. Then he asked Saul why he wished to kill him 
when he had done no wrong. He said he had the chance 
to kill Saul that day and his men begged him to do it, but 
he would not harm his king. Then Da-vid showed the 
piece of the robe he had cut off, so that Saul could see 
how near to him he had been. 

When Saul heard Da-vid's kind words his heart melt-ed 
and he said, "Is this thy voice, my son Da-vid?" and 
he wept. 

Then he said, "Thou hast done good when I have done 
e-vil. The Lord re-ward thee. I know well that thou 
shalt one day be king o-ver Is-ra-el." And he asked 
Da-vid to prom-ise that when he was king he would not 
slay his chil-dren. Da-vid said he would not, and Saul 
went to his home. 

Sam-u-el died and all Is-ra-el mourned for him. Then 
Da-vid went to Pa-ran to live. There was a rich man 
named Na-bal there, who had a good and fair wife named 



i5o THE BIBLE STORY. 

Ab-i-gail. He was a bad man, and he had his flocks 
feed-ing near where Da-vid was. When Na-bal went to 
shear his sheep, Da-vid sent some of his young men to 
see if they could get some food from him. But Na-bal 
asked, " Who is Da-vid ? There are plen-ty of men who 
have run a-way from their mas-ters as he has done." 

When the young men told Da-vid he said, " Gird on 
your swords." Da-vid too put on his sword, for he was 
an-gry. He said he had kept Na-bal's flocks safe and not 
one was lost, and now he would not give them food. 

There was a young man who told Na-bal's wife how 
eood Da-vid had been to them, and how he and his men 
had guard-ed Na-bal's flocks in the des-ert, and how they 
had been treat-ed. 

So Ab-i-gail made haste and took loaves of bread, 
and sheep, and parched corn, and wine, and figs, and 
rais-ins, and load-ed them on the ass-es and went out to 
meet Da-vid. 

When she saw him and his men she bowed down to 
him, and begged him to take what she had brought. She 
said she knew the Lord would bless him and make him 
kine, and then he would be <dad he had heard her and 
not killed Na-bal. 

Da-vid took the gifts she had brought and spoke kind 
words to her, and thanked the Lord He had kept him from 
kill-inor Na-bal in his an-o;er. 

When Ab-i-gail reached home there was a feast there, 
and Na-bal had drank so much wine that she did not tell 
him then how she had saved his life. When he did hear 



THE BIBLE STORY. i5i 

it, he was in such fear that his strength all went from him 
and in ten davs he died. 

When Da-vid heard this he said, " Bless-ed be the Lord 
who has kept me from e-vil." And he loved Ab-i-gail, 
and took her for his wife. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THE DEATH OF SAUL. 



Now Saul still hat-ed Da-vid in his heart and want-ed 
to kill him. So when he heard where he was, he went 
out with some men to find him. Da-vid sent some spies 
to watch, and they brought back word that Saul was come. 

Then Da-vid called his neph-ew, and in the night they 
went down to Saul's camp. Saul slept with his spear 
stuck in the ground near him. Da-vid's neph-ew wished 
to strike the spear through Saul, but Da-vid would not let 
him, for he would not strike one whom God had made king. 

But Da-vid said they would take the spear and cruse of 
wa-ter and go. No one saw what they did, and Saul was 
in a deep sleep. 

Then Da-vid went to the top of a hill and cried out to 
Saul's men. Saul's cap-tain, Ab-ner, waked up and asked, 
"Who art thou that cri-est out?" 

Da-vid said, " Why keep ye not bet-ter watch of the 
king? See where his spear is, and the cruse of wa-ter." 

Saul heard Da-vid and he asked, "Is that thy voice, my 



152 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



son Da-vid?" Then once more Da-vid asked how he had 
done him a-ny harm, and showed him how he might have 
killed him but would not. 

And Saul said, " I have sinned ! Come back, my son 
Da-vid, and I will not harm thee." 

And Da-vid showed him the spear and asked him to 
send one of his young men for it. Then Saul said he 
would go back to his own home. 

But Da-vid did not trust him, for he had said all this 
be-fore, so he thought it would be best for him to go with 
his men in-to the land of the Phil-is-tines. He did so, and 
the peo-ple of that land let them stay there, for they hoped 




DA-VID SPARKS SAULS LIFE. 



THE BIBLE STORY. . i5 



j 



to make slaves of them. When they had been there some 
time, the Phil-is-tines went out to fight Saul. 

Now when Saul saw the host that had come to fight 
him, he asked the Lord what he should do. But the Lord 
would not tell him. He was at his wits' end. So he 
sought out a wo-man who was called a witch and went to 
her at night to ask her if she could bring- back the dead. 

She asked, " Whom shall I bring up ? " 

He said, " Bring up Sam-u-el." 

Then Sam-u-el seemed to come to him, and Saul bowed 
to the ground. 

Sam-u-el asked, " Why hast thou brought me ? " Saul 
said, " I am in great grief, for God has left me, and I have 
called thee to know what I shall do." 

Sam-u-el said, "The Lord has done as I told thee He 
would do. He has put thee from be-ing king, and made 
Da-vid king, be-cause thou hast not served him. He will 
make the Phil-is-tines win in the fight, and on the mor-row 
thou and thy sons shall be with me a-mong the dead." 

And Saul fell on his face and all his strength left him. 
He had not tast-ed food that day. The wo-man begged 
him to eat. At first he would not, but at last he ate of 
the food she brought. 

When the Phil-is-tines went out to fight they took 
Da-vid and his men with them. But some said this would 
not be safe, for Da-vid might turn and fight on the side 
of Is-ra-el. So they were sent back. When they reached 
their homes they found all their hous-es had been burned 
and their wives and chil-dren car-ried off for slaves by 



1 54 



THE BIBLE STORY. 




THE WITCH BRINGS I'P SAM-U-EL. 



the Am-a-lek-ites. Then the Is-ra-el-ites were an-gry with 
Da-vid and want-ed to stone him, but the Lord took care 
of him. 

Then Da-vid asked A-bi-a-thar, the high priest, to speak 
to the Lord and see if it was His will that he should go 
and fight the Am-a-lek-ites. The Lord said, " Go, and thou 
shalt get back all they have tak-en." So Da-vid went, and 
in one place they found a young man sick and faint. They 
gave him food, for he had not eat-en in three days. Then 
they asked him where he was from, and he said he had 
served an Am-a-lek-ite and had been left when he fell 



THE BIBLE STORY. i55 

sick. He told Da-vid how they had burnt Zik-lag with 
fire. Da-vid asked him to take him to the camp of the 
foe. He said he would do so if they would not kill him 
or let him be tak-en. Da-vid told him he should be safe, 
so he brought them to the place. The Am-a-lek-ites had 
a feast and there and then Da-vid with his men fell on 
them and slew them, so that none got a-way but some 
of the young men who fled on cam-els. Then the Is-ra- 
el-ites got back all the spoil that the foe had tak-en, and 
their flocks and herds also. 

Now the Phil-is-tines had gone out to fight Saul and his 
men, and they won, and slew Jon-a-tha'n and two more of 
Saul's sons. Saul too was so wound-ed that he said to his 
ar-mor-bear-er, " Draw thy sword and put me to death 
lest I fall in the hands of the Phil-is-tines." But the man 
was a-fraid. Then Saul took his own sword and set it on 
the ground so that the point was up and fell on it, so that 
it killed him. 

The ar-mor-bear-er saw that Saul was dead and it scared 
him so much that he fell on his own sword and died too. 
So the Phil-is-tines won, and all had come to pass as 
Sam-u-el had told to Saul. The Is-ra-el-ites fled, and the 
Phil-is-tines cut off the head of Saul, and placed the dead 
bod-ies of him and his sons on the wall of Beth-shan. 
But the Is-ra-el-ites, when they heard this, rose and went 
to the place, and took down the bod-ies, and burnt them, 
and laid their ash-es in a grave un-der a tree in Ja-besh. 



i56 THE BIBLE STORY. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



DA-VID IS MADE KING. 



When Da-vid heard the sad news that the Is-ra-el-ites 
had fled from the Phil-is-tines, and that Saul and Jon-a- 
than were dead, his grief was ver-y great. The young 
man who brought the news told him that Saul had asked 
him to kill him, for he was sore wound-ed ; and he said 
he had done so. He knew Saul was no friend to Da-vid, 
and he hoped to get some gift for this news. But Da-vid 
rent his clothes, and he and his men wept for Saul and 
Jon-a-than, and for all who had been slain. And Da-vid 
said the young man must die for his sin, for he had said 
he had killed the King- of Is-ra-el. Then Da-vid asked 
the Lord if he should go back to the land of Is-ra-el. 

The Lord told him to go to the cit-y of He-bron. He 
did so, and the men of Ju-dah came there and made him 
their king. But the rest of the tribes did not come, for 
one of Saul's sons ruled them, But one day two men 
killed him and took his head to Da-vid. They thought 
this would please him, but he said they must die for 
their sin. 

Prom that time Da-vid was kins: of all the tribes. He 
went to Je-ru-sa-lem and took a strong fort that was on 
Mount Zi-on and lived in it. He grew rich and great. 
He took men with him to bring the ark of God back 
from the house where it had been left so long. In this 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



i5jr 




THE DEATH OF SAUL. 



time the peo-ple had for-got to care for the ark, where 
once God had come in a cloud to speak to them. They 
for-got that no one was to touch it but the priests and Le- 
vites. So when the ox-en that drew it stum-bled, Uz-zah, 
who helped drive the cart, put his hand on the ark, and 
dropped down dead. Da-vid was an-gry that the Lord 
had killed Uz-zah. He would not take the ark on, but left 
it in the house of a Le-vite, where it stayed three months. 



1 58 THE BIBLE STORY. 

The Lord blessed all those that were in that house while 
it was there. 

When Da-vid heard this he sent for the ark, and it was 
borne by Le-vites with great joy to the tent he had built 
for it in Je-ru-sa-lem. But as Da-vid sat in his grand 
house he thought he would like to build a house for the 
ark of the Lord. He asked the proph-et Na-than if he 
should do this, but the Lord told Na-than that the son of 
Da-vid should build the house. 

Now when Da-vid had grown rich and great he thought 
of the vow he had made with Jon-a-than. He sent to see 
if there were a-ny of Jon-a-than's chil-dren left, so that he 
might be kind to them. He found there was one son. 
He had been a child on the day his fa-ther was killed, and 
the nurse had picked him up and fled. But she had let 
him fall, and he had been lame since that day. He was 
named Me-phib-o-sheth, and was then a man. 

Da-vid sent for him, and he came and bowed down to 
the ground. Da-vid told him not to fear. He said, " I 
will be kind to thee for thy fa-ther's sake, and thou shalt 
have all the land of Saul, and thou shalt come and eat at 
my ta-ble." And it was so. 

Now Da-vid did e-vil in the sight of the Lord. He 
was on the roof of his house one day, and he saw a fair 
wo-man. He found out that she was the wife of a man 
named U-ri-ah. He sent U-ri-ah to the bat-tie field, with 
word that he must be put in front in the thick of the fight. 
He said they must then fly and leave him there. He 
wished him slain so that he might take his wife for his 



THE BIBLE STORY. i5 9 

own. Jo-ab, his cap-tain, did as he said. He put U-ri-ah in 
front, where he was killed, and sent word of it to Da-vid. 
Then the king brought Bath-she-ba, the wife of U-ri-ah, to 
his house and made her his wife. 

The Lord was wroth with Da-vid, and sent Na-than the 
proph-et to him. And Na-than said to Da-vid, "There 
were two men in one cit-y. One was rich, and one was 
poor. The rich man had great flocks and herds, but the 
poor man had on-ly one lamb. He had fed it, and it slept 
in his bo-som. Now there came a guest to the house of 
the rich man, and he would not take one of his own flock, 
though he had so ma-ny, but he took the poor man's lamb 
and killed it so that his friend might eat." 

When Da-vid heard this he said, "The man who has 
done this shall sure-ly be put to death, and he shall give 
back to the poor man four times as much as he took 
from him." 

And Na-than said un-to Da-vid, "Thou art the man !" 

And he told him how rich and great God had made 
him, yet he had caused a man to be put to death that he 
miofht take his wife. And Na-than said the Lord would 
brimr oreat orief on him for his sin. 

Now God gave a son to Da-vid and Bath-she-ba, and 
they loved him ver-y much. But he grew ver-y sick. 
Da-vid fast-ed and prayed that he might not die. He 
would not taste food, his grief was so great. On the sev- 
enth day the child died. Then Da-vid's men feared to tell 
him But he asked them, "Is the child dead?" They 
said, " He is dead." 



160 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Then Da-vid rose up, and washed and dressed, and 
went to the tent where the ark was kept, and prayed to 
God, and when he came back he sat down and ate food. 
His men said it was strange that while the child was sick 
he would not eat, but now it was dead he could take food. 
Da-vid said, " While the child lived I fast-ed and wept, 
for I said, 'Who can tell wheth-er God will be kind to 
me and let the child live ? ' But now he is dead, why 
should I fast a-ny more ? Can I bring him back to me ? I 
shall go to him when I die, but he shall nev-er re-turn 
un-to me." 

God gave a son to Bath-she-ba and Da-vid, and they 
called him Sol-o-mon, which means Peace-a-ble. 

Da-vid had oth-er sons too. One of them, named Ab- 
sa-lom, was ver-y hand-some, and praised through all the 
land for his good looks. His hair was ver-y thick and 
long, and he was well formed. But his heart was bad, for 
he killed his broth-er Am-non and had to flee from the 
land. At the end of three years he came back, but 
Da-vid would not see him or speak to him. 

At last Ab-sa-lom got Jo-ab to speak to the king for 
him, and Da-vid let him come to see him. When Ab-sa- 
lom bowed down to him, he raised him and kissed him, 
for he loved him. Then Ab-sa-lom put on great state, and 
had men to run in front of his char-i-ot when he rode out, 
and he talked of the great things he would do if he were 
king, and how each man's wrongs should be right-ed. So 
he made ma-ny trust him. 

When he thouQ-ht it safe he went to Da-vid and said, 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



161 



" I pray thee let me go to He-bron and pay a vow to the 
Lord." Da-vid let him go. Then Ab-sa-lom sent spies 
out to all parts of the land, to see who would take him for 
their king and put down Da-vid. The spies told them all 
that when they should hear the sound of trump-ets in the 
land they must shout, "Ab-sa-lom is king in He-bron." 

When Da-vid was told that Is-ra-el was go-ing to join 
Ab-sa-lom, he was in great fear, and he fled with some of 
his peo-ple out of Je-ru-sa-lem. The priests brought the 
ark to take it with them, but Da-vid sent them back with 




SHIM-K-I MOCKS AT DA-VID. 



1 62 THE BIBLE STORY. 

it. He said that the Lord might bring him back there, 
but if not, the Lord should do to him as he saw best. 
Da-vid knew how he had sinned when he had caused the 
death of U-ri-ah, and so he went out of the cit-y'in tears, 
and all that were with him wept. 

On his way a man named Shim-e-i, who was one of 
Saul's kins-men, came out and mocked and cursed him. 
He was glad to see Da-vid in troub-le. He threw stones 
and hard words at him and his men. When Da-vid's 
neph-ew want-ed to kill this man, the king would not let 
him, for he said it was part of the cross that the Lord 
meant him to bear for his sin. And he said, " My own 
son Ab-sa-lom wants to take my life, then why may not 
this man." 

Now a wise man whom Da-vid had trust-ed had gone 
o-ver to Ab-sa-lom. He laid plans to take Da-vid and kill 
him. But there was a man named Hu-shai who sent word 
to Da-vid, so that he fled and was safe. 

Now when Da-vid had crossed Jor-dan, and came to 
the land of Gil-e-ad, there was an old man there who 
brought flour and parched corn and meat to him and his 
men. In the mean time Ab-sa-lom came on with his men, 
and Da-vid count-ed his troops and made Jo-ab his head, 
cap-tain. 

Da-vid wished to go with his men to the fight, but they 
asked him not to risk his life. When they went he begged 
them not to be harsh with Ab-sa-lom, for his heart was 
still full of love for this bad son. 

Now the fight took place in a wood, and God helped 



THE BIBLE STORY. 163 

those that fought on the side of Da-viol, and they pressed 
the men of Ab-sa-lom so hard that they fled on all sides; 
And a great ma-ny were slain, but more lost their lives by 
fall-ing in pits and holes a-mong the rocks in the wood 
than died by the sword. 

Ab-sa-lom fled too, and as he fled he met some of 
Da-vid's men. Now he was rid-ing on the king's mule, 
and as he rode, he went un-der the boughs of a great oak 
tree. As he passed be-neath the tree, his hair caught in 
the boucrhs so that he was held be-tween the earth and 
the sky, and the mule went a-way from un-der him. 

One of Da-vid's men saw this, and went and told Jo-ab, 
" I saw Ab-sa-lom hang in an oak tree." 

Jo-ab said to the man, " Didst thou see him and not 
smite him there to the ground ? I would have giv-en thee 
ten shek-els of sil-ver and a gir-dle." 

The man said, "Though you should give me a thou-sand 
shek-els of sil-ver, yet would I not put forth my hand 
a-gainst the king's son ; for I heard the king charge thee 
and oth-ers, say-ing, Take care that no one touch the young 
man Ab-sa-lom. In truth I should have wrought harm to 
my-self, for there is naught hid from the king, and thou 
thy-self would have set thy face a-gainst me." 

Jo-ab an-swered, " I may lose no more time in talk-ing 
with thee." And he took three darts in his hand, and 
thrust them in-to Ab-sa-lom while he hung yet a-live in 
the tree. Then ten young men, the ar-mor-bear-ers of 
Jo-ab, came and made an end of him. 

And Jo-ab blew a trump-et to call the peo-ple back, and 



1 64 THE BIBLE STORY. 

let them know that Ab-sa-lom was slain. Then the men 
who had been with Ab-sa-lom fled, and the oth-ers took 
his bod-y, and threw it in a pit, and piled stones on it. 

Da-vid sat at the gate of the cit-y to hear the news. 
He had a watch-man on the wall to look out, and he saw 
a man run-ning. The man came on, and bowed down to 
Da-vid, and told him there was good news. The Lord 
had helped Da-vid's men to win. And the king asked, 
" Is the young man Ab-sa-lom safe?" 

The man said, " I saw a great tu-mult when I left, but 
I knew not what it was." 

Then came a sec-ond man and he said, " I have great 
news for my lord the king. The Lord has put thy foes 
to flight." 

And the king asked, "Is the young man Ab-sa-lom safe?" 

And the man said, " May all the king's foes, and all 
who wish to do him harm, be as this young man." 

Then Da-vid knew his son was dead, and he was in 
sore grief. He went up to his room, and wept, and cried, 
" O Ab-sa-lom, my son, my son ! Would to God that I 
had died for thee, O Ab-sa-lom, my son, my son !" 

When Jo-ab heard how the king wept for Ab-sa-lom, 
he was not pleased. The peo-ple stole back to the cit-y ; 
no one wished to see Da-vid when they knew how he 
grieved for his son. 

But Jo-ab went to him and said, "Thou hast shamed 
this day the fa-ces ot all thy serv-ants who have saved thy 
life, for in that thou lov-est thine en-e-mies more than thou 
lov-est them. Vox I see that if Ab-sa-lom had lived, and 



THE BIBLE STORY. i65 

all we had died this day, then it had pleased thee well. 
Now there-fore rise, and go forth, and speak to thy serv- 
ants, or there will not one stay with thee this night, and 
that will be worse for thee than all the e-vil that has hap- 




THE AN-GEL (JOES FORTH TO SMITE THE LAM) Willi PLAGUE. 



x66 THE BIBLE STORY 



pened to thee from thy youth till this time." So the king 
rose, and went and sat in the gate, and when the peo-ple 
heard of it they all came to him there. 

Now the men in je-ru-sa-lem sent word to Da-vid, 
"Come back to us." So he start-ed with all the men who 
were with him. Then Shim-e-i, who had cursed him and 
thrown stones, was full of fear, and he came out and 
fell on his face be-fore Da-vid. Then Da-vid's neph-ew 
said, " Shall not Shim-e-i be put to death be-cause he 
cursed the king?" But Da-vid said, "None should be 
put to death on that day, for the Lord had made him once 
more kino- of all Is-ra-el." 

As he went on, old Bar-zil-la-i, who had brought him 
meat and flour, came out once more to meet him. The 
king said to him, " Come to Je-ru-sa-lem and live in my 
house with me, and I will take care of thee." But Bar- 
zil-la-i said he was an old man, and had not long to live, 
but if Da-vid would take his son he would be glad. The 
king said he would take him, and he kissed Bar-zil-la-i and 
blessed him. 

Now the heart of Da-vid was filled with pride, and he 
thought his strength was in the men who fought for him, 
and not in the Lord. And he was moved to count his 
peo-ple, so that he might know how ma-ny men of war 
he had. 

Then Gad, a proph-et, was sent to tell him of his sin, 
and to say that for his pride the Lord would send a plague 
on the land. 

And as Da-vid was by the thrash-ing floor of A-rau- 



THE BIBLE STORY 



167 



nah the Je-bu-site, he saw the an-gel of the Lord go forth 
to smite the land, and he and those with him fell to the 
ground in fear. 

And Da-vid grieved, and said, 'Lo, I have sinned and 
done wick-ed-ly ; but these sheep, what have they done? 




DA-VID BUILDS A NEW AL-TAR. 



Let Thine hand, I pfay Thee, be a-gainst me, and a-gainst 
my fa-ther's house." 

Then Gad told Da-vid to build a new al-tar to the Lord 
in the thrash-ing floor of A-rau-nah, where he had seen 
the an-gel, that the wrath of the Lord might be ap-peased 



1 68 THE BIBLE STORY. 



So Da-vid bought the thrash-ing floor of A-rau-nah, and 
built there an al-tar, and of-fered sac-ri-fice to the Lord. 
And the Lord stayed the hand of the an-gel, and the 
plague ceased. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE REIGN OF S0L-0-M0N. 

Da-vid had grown old by this time, and he knew his 
death was near. He had not built the house for the ark 
of God, for he knew his son was to do that, but he had 
the stones cut, and trees hewn down, and gold and sil-ver 
brought for the work. 

And he called Sol-o-mon, his son, and told him how he 
had longed to build a house to the Lord, but God chose 
that a man of peace and not of war should build it. 

Now Da-vid said he would make Sol-o-mon king while 
he yet lived, for he had a son named Ad-o-ni-jah who had 
tried to be made king. So Da-vid made Sol-o-mon ride 
on his own mule to a place near the cit-y, and he told the 
peo-ple they must blow on trump-ets and cry, "God save 
King Sol-o-mon," and pour the sa-cred oil on his head. 

They did so, and .when Ad-o-ni-jah heard the noise he 
asked what it was. Some one came in and said that Da-vid 
had made Sol-o-mon king and all were full of joy. 

Then Ad-o-ni-jah was full of fear, but Sol-o-mon said 
that if he would do right, no harm should come to him. 

Then Da-vid called the head men and prin-ces to him 



THE BIBLE STORY. 169 

and talked to them. He told them they must keep God's 
laws, and then they would have that good land. And he 
said to Sol-o-mon, " And thou, Sol-o-mon, my son, o-bey 
the God of thy fa-ther, and serve Him with all thy heart, 
for the Lord looks at the heart and knows all thy thoughts. 
If thou serve Him, He will be thy friend ; but if thou 
turn from Him, He will cast thee off." 

He gave Sol-o-mon all he had for the house of the ark, 
and told him the Lord would help him build it. And 
he called the peo-ple and asked them to give al-so. So 
they brought gold, and sil-ver, and brass, and rich gems, 
and gave them to the Lord. 

Then Da-vid prayed for them, that they might love 
Sol-o-mon arid keep his laws. They made a feast, and ate 
and drank to the Lord, and of-fered up ma-ny beasts to 
Him. So Sol-o-mon ruled the land, and Da-vid died and 
they bur-ied him at Je-ru-sa-lem. 

Now Sol-o-mon feared God. The Lord spoke to him 
in a dream at night and said, " Ask what I shall give 
thee." Sol-o-mon asked that he might be made wise so 
that he would rule the peo-ple well. 

God was pleased that Sol-o-mon had not asked for 
wealth or long life, and He said He would make him 
wise and give him all the rest of the good gifts too. 

Now Sol-o-mon had to judge the peo-ple, and there 
came to him two wo-men who had lived in one house. 
One of them said, "O, my lord, this wo-man and I live 
in one house, and we each had a son. Her child died in 
the night, and she rose up while I slept, and took my son 



170 THE BIBLE STORY. 

from me, and laid it in her bed, and put her dead child in 
my bed. And when I woke to feed my child, it was dead, 
and I looked and it was not my child." 

The oth-er wo-man said, "Nay the liv-ing child is mine!" 

So the king said, " Bring a sword." They brought it. 
And the king said, "Cut the liv-ing child in two, and give 
half to each." Then the real moth-er, who loved the child 
too well to see it killed, cried out, " O, my lord, give her 
the child — do not kill it." The oth-er did not care, and 
said, " Cut it in two."- Then the king knew which was 
the true moth-er, and he said that the one who had beeped 
for its life should keep it. 

So the peo-ple knew that he was a wise king. God 
made him rich and great. Sol-o-mon sent word to Hi-ram, 
king of Tyre, who had been a friend of Da-vids, that he 
want-ed his men to hew down ce-dar trees on Leb-a-non. 
They brought them to the sea, and made them in rafts, 
and float-ed them down to Je-ru-sa-lem. 

So they laid out the plan of a great house. It was to 
be built of stone. Each stone was cut and made for its 
own place. When the walls were built they had ce-dar 
carved with flow-ers laid on them. The in-side of the 
porch was lined with pure gold, and a rich blue and pur- 
ple and crim-son cur-tain hung in the house to make two 
rooms of it. This was called the veil. The in-most place 
was called " Most Ho-ly," and it was in-laid with gold, 
with two cher-u-bim cov-ered with gold. These cher-u- 
bim had their wings spread out, and their fa-ces turned 
to the wall. The doors were made of fir trees and carved 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



171 




SOL-O-MON S WISE JUDG-MENT. 



and gild-ed. And there was a great brass ba-sin, and a 
brass al-tar four times as lanje as the one Mo-ses had 
made. And he set ten can-die-sticks of gold on the al-tar 
to light the place. He spent sev-en years build-ing this 
house. 

Then Sol-o-mon sent for all the chief men of Is-ra-el to 
come and see the ark brought to the house. The priests 
took the ark and set it in the most ho-ly place, and the 
glo-ry of the Lord filled the house like a cloud. 

Then Sol-o-mon thanked them all for that they had 



i72 THE BIBLE STORY. 

helped him build the house, and he prayed God to take 
that house for His Tem-ple. He knelt down, and asked 
God to hear all the pray-ers that the chil-dren of Is-ra-el 
should make in that house. 

When he had spo-ken, fire came down from heav-en 
and burnt the of-fer-ing that lay on the al-tar. Then all the 
peo-ple fell on their fa-ces and prayed. And a great feast 
was held there for two weeks. 

The Lord spoke to Sol-o-mon in the night, and said He 
would take the house to be His Tem-ple. He said if the 
peo-ple sinned and would come there and pray He would 
for-give them. If Sol-o-mon kept His law, he should be 
king as long as he lived, and his sons aft-er him ; but if 
he served oth-er gods, he would be driv-en out, and his 
foes would lay waste the Tem-ple. 

Sol-o-mon built a grand pal-ace in Je-ru-sa-lem, and 
cit-ies to hold his great wealth. 

The queen of a far off land called She-ba heard how 
wise and great he was, and she came to see him. She 
brought spice, and gold, and gems, as gifts. She saw the 
great Tem-ple, and the wealth on all sides, and she said 
the half had not been told her. She asked Sol-o-mon hard 
ques-tions, and he made all plain to her. She went back 
to her own land load-ed with rich o-ifts. 

The throne of Sol-o-mon was made of i-vo-ry covered 
with pure gold, and he had six li-ons made to stand on 
each side, and all his cups and dish-es were made of gold. 
He sent ships out that brought him back all sorts of rich 
things. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



i/3 




THE QUEEN OF SHE-HA COMES TO SEE SOL-O-MON. 



But Sol-o-mon sinned in that he took wives who served 
strange gods. They led him to for-get God. Then the 
Lord raised up foes to troub-le him. 

There was a young man of Is-ra-el named Jer-o-bo-am. 
He met a proph-et one day who told him the Lord meant 
to make him king of Is-ra-el. When Sol-o-mon heard 
this he tried to kill Jer-o-bo-am, but he fled to E-gypt. 



174 " THE BIBLE STORY. 

When Sol-o-mon died the peo-ple sent word to Jer-o- 
bo-am, and he came back. Now Sol-o-mon had a son 
named Re-ho-bo-am. The peo-ple came to him and said 
that if he would say he would be kind to them, and not 
be cru-el as his fa-ther he should rule them, and they would 
serve him. 

Re-ho-bo-am asked the old men what he should do, and 
they told him that he should tell the peo-ple he would be 
kind. But the young men told him to be stern and hard. 

So Re-ho-bo-am took his young friends' ad-vice. When 
the men came to him he was rough with them, and said 
he would be more cru-el than his fa-ther. 

So Is-ra-el was an-gry, and said he should not be king, 
and they chose Jer-o-bo-am. But the tribes of Ju-dah and 
Ben-ja-min kept Re-ho-bo-am for their king. 

When he saw what his harsh words had done he wished 
to call the peo-ple back, but they stoned the men he sent 
to them. Then he called his men to go out and fight, but 
the Lord sent them word they must not go, so they went 
back to their own homes. So now there were two kings 
who ruled Is-ra-el. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE WID-OW'S OIL AND MEAL. 

Now .Jer-o-bo-am feared that when the chil-dren ot 
Is-ra-el went up to Je-ru-sa-lem to pray, and saw there the 
son of Sol-o-mon as king, they might not keep their vow 



THE BIBLE STORY. i75 

to him. - So he had two calves of gold made, and set them 
up in the land, and said to the peo-ple that it was too far 
to go to Je-ru-sa-lem and they could pray to these calves. 
He built a house for the calves, and made feasts for them, 
and chose bad men to be priests for these i-dols. 

Then the priests and Le-vites left the land, and all who 
would not bow down to the calves ; and they went to 
Je-ru-sa-lem and served Re-ho-bo-am as their king. 

One day, as Jer-o-bo-am stood by one of these i-dols to 
burn in-cense, a man of God from Ju-dah came to him, 
and told him that a king should oe born in Ju-dah that 
would spoil that al-tar ; and as a sign that his word was 
true, on that, ver-y day the al-tar should be brok-en. 

Jer-o-bo-am, in great wrath, strove to seize the man of 
God, but his arm grew stiff so that he could not move it. 
The. al-tar was brok-en and the ash-es spilled. 

Then Jer-o-bo-am begged the man of God to pray that 
his hand might be made well, and he did so. Then the 
king begged him to go home with him, but he would not. 
He said the Lord had told him not to eat bread or drink 
wa-ter till he was home once more. 

Now there was an old man in Beth-el who was a 
proph-et too, and he made haste and went out and met the 
man of God from Ju-dah. He told him that God had 
sent him, and said, " Bring him back with thee that he 
may eat and drink." 

Now this was false, and the proph-et from Ju-dah should 
not have gone with him. But he did so, and ate and 
drank, and the Lord was an-gry with him. The word of 



176 THE BIBLE STORY. 

God came to the old proph-et, and he told the man from 
Ju-dah that he should not reach his home, and that his 
grave should be in a strange land. 

And so it came to pass. As he start-ed for home a li-on 
met him and slew him. Some men who saw it told the 
old proph-et who lived in Beth-el, and he took an ass and 
rode out to the place. There lay the dead bod-y and the 
li-on stood by it. The proph-et took up the bod-y and 
buried it in his own place. And he said to his sons, "When 
I die, lay me by the bod-y of the proph-et from Ju-dah." 

Now a son of Jer-o-bo-am grew sick, and Jer-o-bo-am 
asked his wife to dress so that no one should know she 
was queen, and go to the proph-et in Shi-loh who had 
told him he should be made kinor She must take cjifts 
•and find out if the child would eet well. 

The wife of Jer-o-bo-am did so. The proph-et was old, 
and his sight was dim, but the Lord told him who had 
come. So when he heard her he said, " Come in thou 
wife of Jer-o-bo-am, it is in vain to try to hide thy-self 
from me, for the Lord hath said, ' Go say to Jer-o-bo-am, 
I raised thee up and made thee king, but thou hast done 
e-vil and made oth-er gods. So I will send e-vil on thee 
and thine till not one is left, and when they are dead they 
shall not he in graves. ' Go back to thine own house, 
but as thou go-est, the child shall die. The peo-ple shall 
mourn for him, for he is the last of Jer-o-bo-am's house 
that shall lie in a grave." And it came to pass as the man 
of God said; for as the wife of Jer-o-bo-am went in the 
door of her own house, the child died. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



177 



Then Jer-o-bo-am died, and his son reigned in his stead. 
He did wrong in Gods sight, and there were five more, 
bad kings. They served false gods, and bowed down to 
calves of gold. We are told that A-hab was the worst 
of all these kings. His wife was the child of a hea-then 
king, and served a god named Ba-al. A-hab built a house 
for this i-dol, and had men that he called priests of Ba-al, 
and he made Is-ra-el bow down to Ba-al. Then the Lord 
was wroth with A-hab, and sent the proph-et E-li-jah to 
tell him that he should not be king, and that no rain should 
fall in the land for years. This would make a fam-ine in 
the land, so the Lord told E-li-jah where he could go and 
hide by a brook that was out in a wild place. The Lord 
sent ra-vens with meat and bread to him each day, and he 




12 



E-LI-JAH FED BY RA-VENS. 



178 THE BIBLE STORY. 

drank from the brook. But at last the brook dried up toe 
for want of rain. 

Then the Lord told him to go to a*cit-y named Zar-e- 
phath, where there was a wo-man who would feed him. 
E-li-jah went, and saw a wo-man pick-ing up sticks. He 
said to her, " Bring me, I pray thee, a lit-tle wa-ter in 
a cup, that I may drink." As she turned to go he said, 
" Bring me, I pray thee, a piece of bread." 

Then the wo-man said, " As the Lord liv-eth, I have no 
bread, but on-ly a hand-ful of meal and a lit-tle oil, and 1 
am get-ting a few sticks that I may bake it for me and my 
son, that we may not die." 

Then E-li-jah said, " Fear not ; bake it as thou hast said, 
but make me a lit-tle cake first." Then he told her the 
Lord, had said the meal and oil should last as long as the 
fam-ine last-ed in the land. 

So the wo-man had faith, and did as he said. She took 
the proph-et home, and they all lived on the oil and meal 
for a year, for the Lord made it last. 

The son of the wo-man grew sick and died. She came 
to E-li-jah and told of her great grief. He said, " Give 
me thy son." And he took him and laid him on his own 
bed, and cried to the Lord to save him and bring back 
his life to him. And the Lord was pleased to do as E-li- 
jah asked him, and the soul of the child came back to 
him, and he lived. E-li-jah took him and laid him in his 
moth-er's arms. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 179 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE STO-RY OF E-LI-JAH. 

Now Jez-e-bel, the wife of A-hab, hat-ed all the men of 
God in the land, and want-ed to have them killed. Then 
the chief of A-hab's house, a good man named O-ba-di-ah, 
hid them in caves, and sent them food and drink. 

Now the fam-ine had last-ed three years, when A-hab 
called O-ba-di-ah, and sent him out to see if he could find 
some springs hid in the grass, so that the cat-tie might 
not die. O-ba-di-ah went, and on his way E-li-jah came 
to meet him. O-ba-di-ah fell on his face, and E-li-jah told 
him to go and tell A-hab he was there. But O-ba-di-ah 
feared to do this. He told E-li-jah how A-hab had sought 
for him, and now he said, "The Lord will car-ry thee 
a-way, and when A-hab shall come and not find thee, he 
will kill me." 

But E-li-jah said, " As the Lord liv-eth I will show my- 
self to A-hab this day." 

So O-ba-di-ah went, and A-hab came forth to meet 
E-li-jah. He blamed him for the want in the land. But 
E-li-jah told him it was caused by him and his peo-ple, 
who had turned from God and served Ba-al. 

Then E-li-jah told him to bring all the peo-ple to Mount 
Car-mel, and they should see who was the true God. He 
told them to lay an of-fer-ing on Ba-al's al-tar and put no 
fire un-der it, and he would lay one on God's al-tar and 



i So THE BIBLE STORY. 

put no fire un-cler it, and they would see which would be 
burned. They did so, and the priests of Ba-al called on 
him, but no fire came. Then E-li-jah had wa-ter poured 
o-ver the wood on the al-tar of the Lord, and he prayed, 
and fire came down from the Lord and burnt the wood. 

When the peo-ple saw it, they cried out, "The Lord 
He is God, the Lord He is God." 

And E-li-jah said, "Take the priests of Ba-al — let not 
one of them live." For the Lord had said it. 

Then E-li-jah went to the top of Mount Car-mel, and 
prayed to God to send rain. He sent his man to look to 
the sea, but at first he saw no sign. At last he came back 
and said, " I see a small cloud as large as a man's hand." 

Then E-li-jah sent word to A-hab to ride home as fast 
as he could or the storm would come on him. The cloud 
grew, and the sky was black, and there was a great rain. 

When Jez-e-bel heard of all this, she was in a great 
rage. She sent word to E-li-jah, " Let the gods slay me 
too, if I do not put thee to death." 

When E-li-jah heard this he fled. He was so tired and 
weak with his flight that he asked the Lord to let him die. 
As he slept, an an-gel touched him, and showed him a 
cake and a cruse of wa-ter. And the Lord gave him food 
twice, so that he might be strong. 

And he went a long way and hid in a cave. Then a 
great storm came there, and a wind that tore up the earth, 
and a great earth-quake that shook the ground, and a fire, 
but the Lord was not in all these. Then there came a still 
small voice. And E-li-jah knew that God spoke to him. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 1S1 

And the Lord asked, "What do-est thou here, E-li-jah?" 
Then E-li-jah told Him. 

But the Lord said, "I have yet sev-en thou-sand per-sons 
in the land of Is-ra-el who have not bowed the knee to 
Ba-al." And He told him to go back, and to a-noint 
E-li-sha to take his place as proph-et, for the time would 
soon come when his work would be done. 

So E-li-jah went, and he saw E-li-sha in a field .at the 
plough. As he passed he threw his man-tie on E-li-sha, 
and the Lord showed E-li-sha what he meant. So he 
left the plough, and ran aft-er E-li-jah, and said, " Let me 
<jo and take leave of my fa-ther and moth-er and I will 
come to thee." He did so, and then went with E-li-jah 
to serve him. 

Now the kins" of a coun-trv called Svr-i-a made war on 
A-hab, and he sent word to the chief men of Is-ra-el. 
The Lord helped him, though the force of the Syr-i-ans' 
was large 

The Syr-i-ans tried more, and though the Is-ra-el-ites 
were but a hand-ful, the Lord made them win the fight. 
The king of Syr-i-a fled and hid in a house. His serv-ants 
went to A-hab to beg him to spare their king's life. 

So the king was brought out, and A-hab took him up 
in his own char-i-ot, and spared his life. For the king of 
Syr-i-a had told him he would give him some of his cit-ies. 
The Lord was not pleased that A-hab had done this, and 
He sent word to him, "Thy life shall go for his life, and 
thou shalt be slain in-stead of him." 

Now there was a man named Na-both who had a vine- 



1 82 THE BIBLE STORY. 

yard near the pal-ace of the king. A-hab wished him to 
sell it that he might have a gar-den there, and he told him 
he would give him land or mon-ey for it. But Na-both 
would not sell it for it was his home and had been his 
fa-ther's. A-hab was an-gry at this, for he had set his 
heart on the land. He would not eat, and Je-ze-bel came 
and asked him, "Why art thou so sad?" He told her, 
and she said, " Art thou king to be treat-ed so ? Rise up 
eat, drink, and be mer-ry; 1 will give thee the vine-yard." 

She made a plot to have Na-both killed. She got some 
bad men to tell lies and say he had said wrong things of 
God and the king. So Na-both was stoned to death and 
A-hab took his vine-yard. 

When E-li-jah heard this he went out to meet A-hab. 
Then A-hab cried out, " Hast thou found me, O my 
en-e-my ? " 

E-li-jah said, " I have found thee, for thou hast sinned 
a-gainst the Lord." 

Then the man of God told A-hab that he and all in his 
house should be killed, and the dogs would eat Jez-e-bel 
his wife, for she had caused him to sin. 

So A-hab went up with the chil-dren of Is-ra-el to take 
one of the cit-ies which the king of Syr-i-a had said he 
would give him. There was a fight, and A-hab was 
struck with a dart in the breast. He died, and the men 
of Is-ra-el fled. 

His son A-ha-zi-ah came to the throne, and he did e-vil 
in the sight of the Lord. It came to pass that he fell and 
was hurt, and he sent to ask of his i-dol if he would get 



THE BIBLE STORY. 183 

well. Then the Lord said to E-li-jah, " Go up and meet 
the men, and say to them, " Is there no God in Is-ra-el 
that ye go and ask the i-dol of the Phil-is-tines ? Now, 
there-fore, the Lord hath said that the king shall not rise 
up from that bed, and he shall sure-ly die." 

They went back and told this to the king, and he was 
an-gry. He sent out fif-ty men to take E-li-jah, but the 
man of God prayed, and said, " If I be a proph-et, let fire 
come down and burn up these men." And it came to pass 
that the chief man and all who were with him were burnt 
with fire. When the king heard this he sent more men, 
but they met the same fate. Then the third time the king 
sent men, but when they came to the place, the chief fell 
on his knees and begged E-li-jah to spare them. 

So the an-gel of the Lord said to E-li-jah, " Go with 
him : do not fear." 

Then E-li-jah went with him to the king, and told him, 
"Thus saith the Lord. Be-cause thou sent to ask of the 
i-dol of the Phil-is-tines, thou shalt not rise up from that 
bed, and thou shalt die." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE STO-RY OF E-LI-SHA. 



Now when the time came for the Lord to take E-li-jah, 
he went with E-li-sha to a place Galled Gil-gal. He said to 
E-li-sha, " Stay here, for the Lord hath sent me to Beth-el." 

But E-li-sha would not leave him, and they went on 



i8 4 THE BIBLE STORY. 

to Beth-el. The young men came to E-li-sha and said, 
" Know-est thou that the Lord will take thy mas-ter from 
thee to day ? " 

And he said, "Yes I know it, hold ye your peace." 

Then E-li-jah said, " Stay at Beth-el, I pray thee, for 
the Lord hath sent me to Jer-i-cho." But E-li-sha would 
not leave him. He went with him to Jer-i-cho, and then 
on to Jor-dan. The young men from the schools went 
aft-er them, as they stood by the side of the riv-er. And 
E-li-jah took off his man-tie and struck the wa-ter, and it 
part-ed and made a dry path for them to cross. 

Then E-li-jah said to E-li-sha, "Ask what I shall do for 
thee, be-fore I be tak-en from thee." 

Then E-li-sha asked that he might have more of God's 
spir-it in his heart. 

Then E-li-jah said, "Thou hast asked a hard thing. 
Yet if thou see me when I am tak-en from thee, thou 
shalt have thy wish." 

So they walked on. Then all at once a char-i-ot of fire, 
and hor-ses of fire, came and took E-li-jah from the sight 
of his friend. 

And E-li-sha cried out, " My fa-ther, my fa-ther, the 
char-i-ot of Is-ra-el, and the horse-men there-of!" Then 
he rent his clothes, and he took the man-tie that E-li-jah 
had left, and struck the wa-ters of the Jor-dan, and they 
part-ed and he went o-ver on dry land. 

Then the young men came, and bowed down to him, 
and said, " Let us go, we pray thee, and look for thy 
mas-ter. It may be the Lord has left him on some mount 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



iS5 




E-LI-JAH IS TAK-EN UP IN A CHAR-I-OT. 



or in some val-ley." At first K-li-sha said, "no;" but when 
they begged him, he said, "go." 

But they could not find E-li-jah. 

The men of Jeri-cho came to K-li-sha and said that 
the wa-ter in their land was bad, and crops would not 
grow there. So E-li-sha sent for a new cruse, and put 
salt in it, and threw it in the spring, and said, "Thus saith 
the Lord, I have made the wa-ter pure." And so it was 
from that day. 



186 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Now as E-li-sha went to Beth-el, some lit-tle ones came 
forth, and mocked him, and said, "Go up, thou bald head." 
E-li-sha turned and looked at them, and he prayed God 
to pun-ish them for their sin. Then two bears came out 
and tore for-ty-two of them. 

Now Is-ra-el went out to fight the men of Mo-ab, and 
they marched sev-en days, and found no wa-ter. Then 
one asked, "Is there no proph-et here who can pray to 
the Lord for us?" And it was said, " E-li-sha is here." 

So they went to E-li-sha, and he told them to dig ditch-es 
in the camp, and they would be filled with wa-ter. Then 
they must take the cit-ies of Mo-ab, and cut down the 
trees, and spoil the land. And it came to pass, as he said, 
that the ditch-es were full of wa-ter the next day. 

Now the men of Mo-ab brought all their for-ces to the 
camp of Is-ra-el. And it came to pass that the sun shone 
on the ditch-es, and made the wa-ter look as red as blood. 
The-n the men of Mo-ab thought that Is-ra-el had fought 
with one an-oth-er, and all they had to do was to go and 
take the spoil. But when they saw the ar-my they fled, 
and Is-ra-el went aft-er them, and took them and their cit-ies, 
and spoiled the land. 

Then a wo-man cried to E-li-sha that her hus-band had 
died while he owed mon-ey he could not pay. The man 
to whom he owed it had come to take her two sons to 
serve for the mon-ev like slaves. E-li-sha said, " What 
hast thou in thy house?" She said, "I have noth-ing but 
a pot of oil." 

Then he told her to ask all her friends to lend her pots 



THE BIBLE STORY. 187 

and dish-es, and to pour them full of oil, and set them on 
one side. She did so, and her sons went far and wide, 
and brought dish-es to her to fill. 

She poured and poured, but the oil still came. She 
said to her sons, "Bring more," but they said, "There is 
not one more." 

Then E-li-sha said, " Go sell the oil, and pay the man 
what thou ow-est him, and then buy food for thee and 
thy chil-dren." 

Now there was a rich and good wo-man in the town of 
Shu-nem who loved to have E-li-sha come to her house. 
She built him a room, and set in it a bed, a ta-ble, a stool, 
and a can-die-stick, so that he could make his home there 
when he chose. 

Once when he was there, he told her she had been so 
kind to him that he would like to know if there was a-ny- 
thing he could ask for her from the king. But she said 
she need-ed noth-ing. Then Ge-ha-zi, his serv-ant, said, 
" She has no child." E-li-sha said, " Call her." And she 
came. Then the proph-et told her the Lord would give 
her a son. And in time a boy was born to her. \\ hen 
he was large he went out one day to the field to the reap- 
ers. And he grew sick and cried out, " My head, my 
head." His fa-ther told one of the young men to take him 
to his moth-er, and he did so. The boy sat in her lap till 
noon, and then he died. She took him to E-li-sha's room, 
and laid him on his bed. Then she made haste and rode 
to find the proph-et at Mount Car-mel. He saw her a long 
way off, and sent Ge-ha-zi to meet her, and ask her, " Is it 



188 THE BIBLE STORY. 

well with thee? Is it well with thy hus-band ? Is it well 
with the child ?" She said, " It is well." 

Then she drew near, and fell on the ground, and clasped 
the feet of E-li-sha, and cried, " Did I ask that I might 
have a son ? " Then E-li-sha knew that the boy was dead. 
And he gave his staff to Ge-ha-zi, and told him to make 
great haste, and speak to no one, but to go and lay the 
staff on the face of the child. 

But the wo-man would not go with-out E-li-sha. So he 
rose up and went with her. He met Ge-ha-zi, who said, 
"The child has not waked." 

Then E-li-sha went to his room where the child lay 
dead on the bed. He shut the door and prayed. Then 
he got up and put his mouth on the child's mouth, and his 
eyes on the child's eyes, and his hands on the child's hands, 
and the boy's flesh grew warm. He went out and walked 
for a while, and then he did the same thing once more, 
and the child came to life. Then he called the moth-er 

and laid the bov in her arms. 

j 

E-li-sha did ma-ny things with the Lord's help. He 
changed a poi-son vine to good food, and he made a few 
loaves feed a hun-dred men so that there was some left. 

Now there was a brave man in Syr-i-a called Na-a-man, 
and he was a lep-er. A lit-tle maid from Is-ra-el who 
served Na-a-man's wife told her of a proph-et in her own 
land who could cure him. 

Then the king of Svr-i-a sent Na-a-man to the kin?- of 
Is-ra-el with a let-ter. And he took gold pie-ces to pay 
for his cure. But the kinor of Is-ra-el said, "Am I God, 



THE BIBLE STORY. 189 

that I can cure a lep-er?" He thought the king of Syr-i-a 
want-ed an ex-cuse to make war on him, and he rent his 
clothes, and was troub-led. 

When E-li-sha heard this, he sent word to him, " Let 
the man come to me and he shall know there is a proph-et 
in Is-ra-el." 

So Na-a-man, with his grand char-i-ot and hor-ses, came 
to E-li-sha's door. The proph-et sent word to him, " Go 
wash sev-en times in the riv-er Jor-dan and thou shalt 
be clean." 

Now Na-a-man was in a rage. He thought that the 
riv-ers in his own land were as good as a-ny in Is-ra-el. 
Then the man of God had not e-ven come out to look at 
him, But his serv-ants were more wise than he. They 
came to him and said, " If the proph-et had asked thee to 
do some hard thing, thou wouldst have done it. But now 
when he says, ' Wash and be clean,' thou wilt not." 

So Na-a-man went and dipped sev-en times in the riv-er 
Jor-dan, and his flesh grew soft and pure as a lit-tle child's. 

Then he went back in great joy to the house of E-li-sha, 
and wished to give him rich gifts, but the proph-et would 
take none. 

Then Na-a-man asked for as much earth as two mules 
could bear. He wished to take it to his own land that he 
mio-ht build an al-tar to the true God, and pray to Him 
from that day. But Na-a-man told E-li-sha that when his 
mas-ter the king went to the i-dol's house to pray, he would 
have to go with him and let him lean on his arm. 

He asked if the Lord would for-give him for that. He 



i 9 o THE BIBLE STORY, 

might seem to bow down to the i-dol, but he would pray 
to the Lord in his heart. And E-li-sha said, "Go in peace." 

So Na-a-man went on his way. Now Ge-ha-zi thought, 
"Why should I not take a gift from this man?" So he 
ran aft-er him, and said, " My mas-ter sent me to tell thee 
that there are two young men come to him who are sons 
of the proph-ets. He asks thee to give them a piece of 
sil-ver and two chan-ges of clothes." Then Na-a-man took 
two pie-ces of sil-ver, and two suits of clothes, and put 
them in two bags, and gave them to two of his men to 
car-ry! When they came to E-li-sha's house Ge-ha-zi took 
them and hid them. Then he went in to his mas-ter. 

Now E-li-sha knew all the man had done, for the Lord 
had told him. So he asked him, " Where hast thou been, 
Ge-ha-zi?" The man said, "Thy serv-ant hath been no 
where." Then E-li-sha said, " Did I not know it when 
Na-a-man came down from his char-i-ot to meet thee ? Is 
this a time to take mon-ey, and gar-ments, and rich-es ? 
There-fore, be-cause thou hast done this thing, the lep-ro-sy 
which Na-a-man has been cured of shall be on thee, and 
on thy chil-dren for-ev-er!" 

And it was so, for Ge-ha-zi went out a lep-er as white 
as snow. 

Then the sons of the proph-ets came to E-li-sha and 
said the house where they lived was too small for them. 
So they begged E-li-sha to go with them to the riv-er Jor- 
dan, while they cut down trees there that they might build 
a lar-ger house. And the top of the axe that one of them 
used fell in the wa-ter. He was in great grief, for it was 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



191 



not his own, but E-li-sha made the i-ron float on the wa-ter 
so that he could pick it up. 

Now the Lord made known to E-li-sha that Ben-ha-dad, 
the king of Syr-i-a, meant to make war on Is-ra-el, and 
take their king. E-li-sha told the king of Is-ra-el, and he 
fled. When Ben-ha-dad could not find him, he thought 




E-LI-SHA MAKES THE AXE FLOAT. 



some man in his own camp must have warned him. He 
called his men and asked which one was a friend to the 
king of Is-ra-el. One said, " None of u? is on his side, 
O king. It is E-li-sha, the proph-et, who tells him the 
words thou dost speak." 



192 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Then the king of Syr-i-a said, " Go and find out where 
E-li-sha is, that I may take him." So they found that he 
was in the cit-y of Do-than. Then Ben-ha-dad sent men 
and hor-ses to Do-than. E-li-sha's serv-ant saw them, and 
he was in great fright, but his mas-ter said, " Fear not, 
they that are with us are more than they that are a-gainst 
us." He prayed to the Lord, and all at once a great host 
seemed to camp round the place as a guard to E-li-sha. 
Then, when Ben-ha-dad's men came to take him, E-li-sha 
prayed that they might be made blind. 

The Lord heard E-li-sha, and it was so that the men 

could not see. Then E-li-sha led them straight to the kino- 
es o 

of Is-ra-el, and prayed to the Lord to make them see, and 
He did so, and they saw where they were. 

The king asked E-li-sha what he should do to the men, 
and he told him to give them food and send them back to 
their own land. 

Then Ben-ha-dad laid siege to the cit-y of Sa-ma-ri-a, 
and would let no bread go in, so that the peo-ple were 
starved. 

When the king saw this, he blamed E-li-sha, and wished 
to kill him, but E-li-sha told him that the next day there 
would be food for all. 

That same night the Lord caused the Syr-i-ans to think 
that a great host was com-ing to fight them. So they left 
their tents, and all that they had, and fled. Then the 
Is-ra-el-ites came up, and the food, and gold, and rich 
clothes that the Syr-i-ans had left all fell in-to their hands. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 193 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE IS-RA-EL-ITES HAVE TO GO OUT OF CA-NAAN. 

In due time the Lord brought to pass the doom which 
He had said by the mouth of E-li-jah should fall on the 
chil-dren of A-hab. 

He caused E-li-sha to have a young man named Je-hu 
a-noint-ed as king of Is-ra-el. Je-hu was told that he 
must kill all who were left of the house of A-hab, who 
had done e-vil in the sight of the Lord. 

Je-hu went at once to Jez-reel with his men. He met 
King Je-ho-ram at the gate, and drew his bow and shot him 
so that he fell dead. They left his bod-y on the ground, 
in the place that had once been Na-both's vine-yard. 

Now Jez-e-bel had paint-ed her face, and put on fine 
clothes, and she sat in a win-dow as Je-hu and his men 
marched in. He looked up, and said to some of the men 
of the house, " Who is on my side, throw her down to 
me." They threw her down and the hor-ses trod her 
un-der foot. 

When Je-hu sent his men to bring her, they could on-ly 
find her skull and some bones, for the dogs had eat-en her, 
as the Lord had said. So there was no one left of the 
house of A-hab. 

Je-hu did e-vil in God's sight, and he left a son who 
was just as bad. So the Lord let Haz-a-el, who had 
slain Ben-ha-dad and made him-self king of Syr-i-a, fight 



13 



194 



THE BIBLE STORY. 




DEATH OF JEZ-E-BEL. 



Is-ra-el, and burn their cit-ies, and kill the young men and 
maid-ens and lit-tle chil-dren. 

Now E-li-sha had grown sick, and was near his death. 
Je-ho-ash, who was then king of Is-ra-el, came to him, and 
stood by his bed, and wept. Then E-li-sha told the king 
to take a bow, and shoot an ar-row to the east. He did 
so, and E-li-sha told him that he should set Is-ra-el free 
from the Syr-i-ans. 

Then E-li-sha told the king to take the ar-rows in his 
hand, and strike on the ground with them. 

The king struck three times, and then stopped. E-li-sha 



THE BIBLE STORY. i 9 5 

told him that if he had not stopped he would have led 
Is-ra-el in a war that would have put an end to the 
Syr-i-ans, but now he would win on-ly three fights. 

Then E-li-sha died and was bur-ied. Now it came to 
pass that some Mo-ab-ites who came to rob, met men who 
bore a corpse to its grave. The men were in such fear 
that they did not take the dead man to the grave that had 
been dug for him, but put him in the one where E-li-sha 
had been placed. As soon as the corpse touched the 
bones of E-li-sha, life came back to it, and the man rose 
and stood on his feet. 

King Je-ho-ash won three fights with the Syr-i-ans, as 
E-li-sha had said, and then he died and his son Jer-o-bo-am 
reigned in his stead. The Lord still helped Is-ra-el, but 
they would not serve him, but bowed down to calves ol 
gold. A-mos, the proph-et, went to talk to them, and tell 
them what the Lord had done for them, and how they 
had sinned. 

But King Jer-o-bo-am would not hear the words of the 
proph-et, and went on with his sins, and so did his sons, 
and his sons' sons. They would not serve God, but set 
up false gods in high pla-ces and made their sons and 
daugh-ters go through the fire to please these i-dols. 

So at last God drove the Is-ra-el-ites out of Ca-naan, as 
he had done with the na-tions that lived there be-fore them. 
The king of As-syr-i-a went through the land and drove 
them out, and took all the ten tribes with him to his land, 
and they had to serve him. 



ig6 THE BIBLE STORY. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

' GOOD AND BAD KINGS. 

Now Sol-o-mon's son Re-ho-bo-am, we know, had been 
made king at Je-ru-sa-lem o-ver the tribes of Ju-dah and 
Ben-ja-min. The priests and Le-vites who would not 
bow down to the gold-en calves came there, and made the 
kinsr-dom- strong. For a time Re-ho-bo-am served the 
Lord, and all went well, but then he and the rest of the 
peo-ple made i-dols, and set them in high pla-ces. Then 
the Lord sent the king of E-gypt to fight them. 

A proph-et came and told the king of Ju-dah that the 
Lord would not help him be-cause he had sinned. He 
bowed his head and owned that he had done wrong. Then 
the Lord did not let the E-gyp-tians kill him, but they took 
what they chose of gold and sil-ver out of the land. 

When A-sa was king of Ju-dah he did what was right, 
and pleased God. Yet in his old age he tried to buy peace 
from his foe with sil-ver and gold, and did not trust in the 
Lord. He died, and his son Je-hosh-a-phat reigned in 
his stead. 

He did what was ricrht in the si^ht of God and he was 
blessed and made rich. He sent men out through all the 
towns of Ju-dah with the book of God's laws, so that they 
might teach them to all. 

\\ nen the na-tions came to fight him, he called the 
peo-ple to fast and pray. And he asked help of the Lord, 



~~tt ~_ sttt " " r t t, "T zz ittr At t ttt Lord rnade 

ttt ta-r.tt= ttt: tat :_ttt z: tta.tt ~at ttt: z?.t ~t:r_ 
an-oth-er. V\ At. zzzt rr.tr. : >At :tttt ttar. ttt; =.a~ 
all Atir ::t= :^/_ :t_ ttt tr:ttt art zr.tr/ At ~:rt i 
art A-vtr :tat. ::.rv :: ttt :ake a-~ ay 

Je-t. At-a-thai had sev-en sods i to six he left gold 
and sil-ver, and cit-ies for tfaem to rule, but his first 
= :t Jt-t:-rarr ~~a= taaA -ttr; He turned to i-dols and 
sinned in God's sight Tr.tr. t -::.. tt r.:= : -trs 

for fear they would take the land from him. 

Att — :rt st_t: t s rt si.i-r.tss :r tttt s: :::: tt c:tT 
His = :t A-ta-a:-aa rtittrtt ::: :rt tt: — := rttt-tr 
5 :>.t it tt A:tr A A-ha ttA she k him to do that 
which was not right 

He was shot by Je-hu, and when his moth-tr knew he 
was dead she took his sons and slew them so that she 
might be queen. 

But there was one lit-tle boy named Jo-ash that the 
:-- - : :.: : :. -r^s: At it At tt-t: ""Art r.t r.zz :t 

Tt o r * 

hid-den for six years, the high priest brought him out and 
the Le-vites made him king. 

Then they seized the wick-ed queen, and took her to a 
place near and slew her. 

While Je-hoi-a-da, the high priest who had hid-den him 
so long, lived, Jo-ash did that which was right But he 
had no true love for God in his heart, and when Je-hoi-a-da 
died he gave the prin-ces of Ju-dah leave to stay a-way 
from the tem-ple, and they turned back to their i-dols. 

Then the Lord sent the Svr-i-ans to make war, and they 



i 9 8 THE BIBLE STORY. 

won the fight. Jo-ash fell sick and his own serv-ants killed 
him in his bed. 

His son Am-a-zi-ah reigned in his stead. He made 
war on the E-dom-ites, and the Lord helped him to win 
the fight. But when he came home, he brought the i-dols 
of the E-dom-ites with him, and set them up to be his 
gods, and Bowed down to them. 

A proph-et came to him and asked him, "Why dost 
thou pray to the i-dols of E-dom that could not help them 
when thou didst fight them?" 

Then Am-a-zi-ah was an-gry, and said, "Art thou here 
to tell me what I must do?" and he said he would put the 
proph-et in pris-on if he would not keep still. 

Then the proph-et told him that God would make an 
end of him, and it came to pass. He went out to fight 
a-gainst Is-ra-el, and the king of Is-ra-el took him cap-tive 
back to Je-ru-sa-lem, and broke down the wall of the cit-y, 
and went in the tem-ple and took the gold and sil-ver that 
were there. Then Am-a-zi-ah was killed by some of his 
own peo-ple who did not want him for their king. 

Uz-zi-ah, his son, came next to the throne. At first he 
did what was right. But he grew proud of his strength, 
and thought he could do as he chose. He went in a part 
of the tem-ple where none but priests should go, and for 
this was made a lep-er, and stayed a lep-er till he died. 

When he died, his son Jo-tham was king, and he served 
God. But the peo-ple served i-dols, and God sent I-sa-iah 
to talk to them. He warned them, but they would not 
hear. He told them that their foes should make slaves of 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



199 



them, and he spoke of Christ who would be born of the 
tribe of Ju-dah to save the world from sin. 

Then the good king died, and his son A-haz reigned. 
He was a bad man and served strange gods. n Q j^j t ^ e 
doors of the tem-ple shut so that no one could go there to 
pray, and he set up i-dols in all the cit-ies of the land. 

When he died he was not laid in the grave of kings, for 
the Lord was ver-y an-gry at the e-vil he had done. 

Hez-e-ki-ah, his son, was made king, and he made haste 
to have the tem-ple o-pened and cleaned, and the al-tars set 
up, and he went with the priests to of-fer up a burnt offer- 
ing and sing prais-es to God with harps and cym-bals. 

And he wrote let-ters and sent men with them to all 
parts of the land for peo-ple to come and keep the feast to 
the Lord. Most of the men of Is-ra-el mocked at them, 
but the men of Ju-dah went up to keep the least oi the 
Pass-o-ver. 

When they had kept the feast, they went out through 
the land and broke in pie-ces all the i-dols they found 
there. So King Hez-e-ki-ah kept all the laws of God. 

When the King of As-svr-i-a came and took some of the 
cit-ies of the land, Hez-e-ki-ah made the walls of Je-ru-sa- 
lem strong. He met his peo-ple and said, "Do not fear, 
for God will fight for us." 

The King of As-syr-i-a sent word to the peo-ple of Je-ru- 
sa-lem not to trust the word of their king, but to make 
friends with him and he would do no harm to them. 
When Hez-e-ki-ah heard this, he rent his clothes and went 
up to the tem-ple to pray to the Lord. And that night 



200 THE BIBLE STORY. 

the Lord sent an an-gel in-to the camp of the As-syr-i-ans 
and slew them. 

Hez-e-ki-ah was one of the best kings of Ju-dah. He 
fell sick once, and the proph-et I-sa-iah told him that it 
was the Lord's will that he should die. But Hez-e-ki-ah 
prayed to the Lord, and the Lord heard him, and sent 
I-sa-iah to say to him that He would add fif-teen years to 
his life. 

When Hez-e-ki-ah died, his son Ma-nas-seh was made 
king. He did e-vil, and prayed to be sun, moon, and stars. 

He caused the peo-ple to sin. 1 he Lord spoke to him 
by His proph-ets, but he would not hear. He was bound 
and led in chains to Bab-y-lon. 

Then he thought of the Lord and prayed to him with 
all his heart, and the Lord helped him, and let him go 
back to Je-ru-sa-lem, and from that time he served the 
true God. But when he died, his son Am-mon did wrong 
in the sight of God, and he was killed by his own serv-ants. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

JE-RU-SA-LEM IS LAID WASTE. 

Jo-si-ah was but a boy when he was made king, but he 
served the Lord. He threw down the al-tars of Ba-al, and 
built up the tem-ple, and the Lord said that He would not 
pun-ish the Is-ra-el-ites for their sins in his day. 

Jo-si-ah went through the land and threw down the 
gold-en calves, and made a feast to the Lord. He asked 



THE BIBLE STORY. 201 

all his peo-ple to come to this feast, and they came, but 
they did not love the Lord in their hearts. When Jer-e- 
mi-ah talked to them of their sins, they said, " Let us kill 
him," but the Lord saved him. 

The king of E-gypt made war on the Is-ra-el-ites, and 
Jo-si-ah was killed. His son was made king, but he did 
e-vil in the Lord's sight, and the E-gyp-tians bound him 
in chains and took him to E-gypt. He died there. Je-hoi- 
a-kim was made king, but he. had to do just as the king 
of E-gypt told him. 

Then the Lord told Jer-e-mi-ah to write down in a book 
all the woes He meant to bring on Is-ra-el for their sins. 
So Ba-ruch, who was a scribe or wri-ter, did this, and he 
took the book to the tem-ple to read it where all the peo- 
ple could hear. Those who heard it told the king of the 
book, and he sent for it so that he might hear. He was 
an-gry when he heard it, and cut out all the leaves of the 
book, and burnt them in the fire. He tried to find Jer-e- 
mi-ah and Ba-ruch to kill them, but the Lord saved them. 

Then the Lord told Jer-e-mi-ah to take a roll and write 
the words once more, with more that he would tell him. 
He told him that when the foe came to take Je-ru-sa-lem, 
he should be saved. 

When Neb-u-chad-nez-zar, king of Bab-y-lon, came to 
Je-ru-sa-lem, he went in the tem-ple and took all the ves- 
sels of gold and sil-ver, and he robbed the king's pal-ace. 
Then he took the king and his peo-ple and all the men fit 
for war back to Bab-y-lon with him. 

Jer-e-mi-ah was thrown in a deep pit full of mire. Zed- 



202 



THE BIBLE STORY. 




THE PEO-PLE ARE LED OFF AS SLAVES. 



e-ki-ah, who had been made king of those left in Je-ru-sa- 
lem, had him brought to him in se-cret, for he wished to 
ask him a ques-tion. 

Jer-e-mi-ah said, " If I tell thee, wilt thou prom-ise not 
to put me to death?" The king said he would. He then 
told the king that he must go out to the king of Bab-y-lon 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



and serve him. But he did not, and soon the Chal-de-ans 
came and laid siege to the cit-y, and there was no bread 
to eat. 

In the night, Zed-e-ki-ah fled with his two sons, but 
they caught him, and took him to the king of Bab-y-lon. 
He killed the sons, and put out Zed-e-ki-ah's eyes, and 
kept him in chains till he died. 

Then the foe burnt the tem-ple, and all the hous-r5. ?.nd 
the pal-ace of the king. They broke down the walls, and 
took off all the gold and sil-ver, and made slaves of the 
peo-ple. But the king of Bab-y-lon sent word that they 
must find Jer-e-mi-ah, and be kind to him, and do all that 
he might ask. The cap-tain told him he might stay in his 
own land, or go to Bab-y-lon and he would take care of 
him. But Jer-e-mi-ah stayed in his own land, and more 
of the Jews came where he lived and stayed with him. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE DRV BOXES THE STO-RV OF DAX-IEL. 

Now there was a proph-et named E-ze-ki-el with the 
men who had been tak-en off by the king ol Bab-y-lon. 
The Lord made him see all the sins that the peo-ple did 
in Je-ru-sa-lem, how they served false gods and filled the 
land with sin, and why He meant to pun-ish them. E-ze- 
ki-el told all to the slaves who were with him, but they 
would not hear him. But some of them said. ' \\ hat 
shall we do? Who can save us? E-ze-ki-el told them 



204 THE BIBLE STORY. 

they could be sor-ry for their sins, and turn to the Lord. 
" Turn ye ! turn ye ! for why will ye die ? " 

When the time was up, a man came and told them that 
all "had come to pass as E-ze-ki-el had said. But the Lord 
said if they would turn to Him, He would bless them. 
He showed E-ze-ki-el a place full of dry bones, and He 
made flesh come on them, and skin, and then He breathed 
on them and made them live. Then He showed him that 
just so He could raise Is-ra-el out of their low state and 
bring them to their own land in joy. He said He would 
make one na-tion of them. 

Now the king of Bab-y-lon chose four young men of 
Is-ra-el to wait on him. They were named Dan-iel, Sha- 
drach, Me-shach, and A-bed-ne-go. 

They were to be taught as the king chose, and he sent 
them their meals from his own ta-ble. Now the meat and 
wine sent had been left from that of-fered up to the false 
gods of the As-syr-i-ans, and the young men would not 
take it. The chief who had the care of them loved Dan-iel, 
and he did not want the king to know of this. He said 
the king would see that they were pale if they did not eat 
the meat and drink the wine. But Dan-iel begged him to 
let them eat on-ly pulse for ten days. 

He did so, and he saw they were in fine health, with 
red cheeks. So he did not force them to take the bread 
and wine. In time they went and served in the king's 
pal-ace, and pleased him well. 

One night the king dreamed a dream that made him 
sad. He called the wise men and told them that he could 



THE BIBLE STORY. 2o5 

not think what it was he had dreamt, and they must find 
out what it was, and what it meant, or they should be cut 
to pie-ces. 

Then they said, " There was not a man on earth who 
could do such a thing. It was a strange thing that the 
king- asked — for them to tell his dream when he did not 
know it him-self. No one but a god could do that, and 
the gods did no t live on the earth." 

Then the king said all the wise men should be slain. 
But Dan-iel asked what the tu-mult meant, and he went to 
the king and told him that if he gave him time he would 
find out the dream so that the wise men should not be 
slain. The king said he would give him time. Dan-iel 
then asked his three friends to pray to God with him. 

Then God showed Dan-iel what the dream was, and 
what it meant. And Dan-iel said, " I thank thee and 
praise thee, O God of my fa-thers, that thou hast told me 
the things the king de-sires to know." 

So Dan-i-el was brought in haste to the king. He told 
him that his God had made known to him what was to 
come to pass. He said that the king had dreamed that 
he saw a great im-age, whose head was of gold, but whose 
feet were clay. As the king saw it, a stone struck it, and 
it was bro-ken in small pie-ces, so small that the wind blew 
them a-way. Then the stone grew to a large moun-tain. 

This im-age of gold and brass and clay meant all the 
king-doms of the earth. They must all give way to the 
king-dom of Christ. The stone meant that king-dom. 

Then Neb-u-chad-nez-zar fell on his face and said, " It is 



206 THE BIBLE STORY. 

true your God is a God of gods," and he made Dan-iel a 
great man, and gave him cit-ies to rule, and he gave his 
three friends good pla-ces too. 

Now Neb-u-chad-nez-zar made an i-dol of gold, and sent 
word to all in the land that they must go and pray to it. 
Then it was told him that Dan-iel and his friends did not 
go and pray to the i-dol as he had said. 

So the king had them brought to him, and he told them 
that if they did not o-bey him they should be cast in-to a 
fi-e-ry fur-nace. 

But they did not fear. They said they knew God could 
save them from death, or if not, they would burn to death 
be-fore they would serve false gods. 

Then the king was in great wrath. He sent word that 
his men should heat the fur-nace sev-en times hot-ter than 
it had ev-er been. 

Then Dan-iel and his three friends were bound and 
cast in the flames. The fur-nace was so hot that it killed 
the men who cast them in ; but these three He-brews 
rose and walked in the fire, for God kept the flames so 
that it did not e-ven scorch their clothes. I hen the king, 
who looked on, saw four men in the midst of the fire. 
The form of the fourth was like the Son of God. And 
the king called out, " Ye serv-ants of the most high God, 
come forth ! " The young men walked out, and their hair 
was not singed, nor the smell of fire on them. 

Then Neb-u-chad-nez-zar blessed the name of their God, 
and made a law that no one should* speak e-vil of the God 
of Dan-iel, for there was no oth-er orod could save like Him. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 207 

Now Bab-y-lon was a grand cit-y, with high walls and 
ma-ny gates of brass. The king had a fine pal-ace with 
great gar-dens on a hill, and all men praised him till he 
thought no more of God. He dreamed once more, and 
told Dan-iel of it. He dreamed of a green tree, where the 
birds sang, and beasts lay down in its shade. He thought 
an an-gel cried out from heav-en, " Cut down the tree, but 
let the stump stand for sev-en years." The king asked 
Dan-iel what this meant. 

Dan-iel did not like to tell the king at first. But at last 
he told him, "The tree means thee, O king." And he 
went on to say that the cut-ting down of the tree, and the 
stump that was to be left for sev-en years, meant that 
Neb-u-chad-nez-zar should come down from his throne, 
and lose his king-dom, and be turned out in the fields with 
the beasts and have to eat grass like them till he learned 
that God rules the world, and makes and un-makes kings. 

It came to pass that one day, when the king walked in 
his grand pal-ace, and looked out with pride on all he 
owned, and said, " Is not this great Bab-y-lon that I have 
made?" there came a voice from heav-en that told him 
he must lose it all. And the king lost his mind so that he 
could not rule, and he knew no more than a dumb beast, 
and went out and slept on the ground. 

But when the time was at an end, Neb-u-chad-nez-zar's 
sen-ses came back to him, and he prayed to God and 
praised his name. And God gave his throne back to him, 
and he served God the rest of his life. 



208 THE BIBLE STORY. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE WORDS ON THE WALL. 

Now when Neb-u-chad-nez-zar was dead, there was a 
king called Bel-shaz-zar who reigned in Bab-y-lon. He 
made a great feast, and had the gold and sil-ver ves-sels 
brought in which had been sto-len from the tem-ple at 
Je-ru-sa-lem. They drank wine out of these while th^y 
praised their false gods. 

But all at once they saw a strange sight. There came 
forth a man's hand that wrote words on the wall. They 
could not tell what the words meant, but the king was full 
of fear, and his limbs shook when he saw them. He sent 
for the wise men, but they could not read them. When 
the queen heard of it, she said there was a man in the 
land who could help him, and his name was Dan-iel. 

So Dan-iel was sent for, and the king said that if he 
would tell him what the words on the wall meant, he 
would give him a scar-let robe, a gold chain, and a high 
place in the king-dom. 

But Dan-iel told him he might keep his gifts. Then he 
told the king that God meant to say to him in these words 
that he would have him no long-er for king. " Thy king-dom 
is at an end, He has tried thee and thou art found want-ing." 
He has given thy king-dom to the Medes and Per-sians. 

Then Bel-shaz-zar did as he had said he would. He 
made Dan-iel put on a scar-let robe and a gold chain, and 



THE BIB^LE STORY. 209 

he grave him the third rank in his land. But that same 
night the Medes and Per-sians came, and slew the king, 
and took the king-dom. 

Now it pleased the Per-sian king, Da-ri-us, to put 
Dan-iel to rule part of the land, and the prin-ces hat-ed 
him, and sought to find fault in him. But he was so good 
and wise they could find no thing to say but that he served 
his God. 

Now the king made a law that if a-ny one should ask 
help from god or man for thir-ty days, they should be cast 
in a den of li-ons. 

The prin-ces were glad, and went and told the king that 
Dan-iel asked help from his God three times a day. 

Now the king loved Dan-iel, but he thought he must 
stand by his own law. So he told his men to cast him 
in the den of li-ons, but he said, "Thy God whom thou 
serv-est, He will save thee." 

They took Dan-iel and cast him in the den of li-ons, 
and rolled a great stone up-on the mouth of the den. 

The king was sad and would not eat, and he could not 
sleep. He rose when it was light, and went to the den, 
and called Dan-iel to ask if he still lived. Dan-iel said, 
" My God has sent His an-gel and shut the mouths of the 
li-ons so they have not hurt me." 

The king was glad, and he brought Dan-iel out of the 
den. Then he had all the men who had spoken e-vil of 
him cast in the den of li-ons with their chil-dren and wives. 
The li-ons leaped on them and killed them at once. Then 
Kino; Da-ri-us made a law, and sent it to all parts of the 



14 



210 THE BIBLE STORY. 

land, that all men must tear and bow down to the God of 
Dan-iel. 

Dan-iel knew that the time would soon come for the 
Is-ra-el-ites to go back to their own land, and he prayed to 
God for them, and the Lord sent an an-gel to tell him that 
the Jews should go back. He told, too, that a Sa-viour 
would be born and put to death, and then once more the 
Jews should be driv-en forth. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE JEWS BUILD UP THE TEM-PLE. 

God made Cy-rus, the king at Bab-y-lon, let His peo-ple 
go. Cy-rus helped them with sil-ver, and gold, and suits 
of clothes, for God put it in his heart to do so. He gave 
them back all the ves-sels of gold and sil-ver that had been 
sto-len from the tem-ple. So they went in a great ar-my 
to their old home, and found the cit-y of Je-ru-sa-lem in 
ru-ins, just as it had been left so ma-ny years a-go. 

The first thing they did was to build up the al-tar that 
they might pray to God there. Then they brought wood 
and stones to build a new tem-ple to the Lord. They 
were glad, and sent up shouts of joy, but some of the old 
men wept. 

The Sa-mar-i-tans, who lived in the land, came and said, 
" Let us help you." But the Is-ra-el-ites knew they prayed 
to i-dols, and they would not let them help. So the Sa- 
mar-i-tans were an-gry, and did all they could to stop the 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



21 I 



work. When Cy-rus died, and Ar-tax-erx-es was made 
king, they wrote to him what the Jews were do-ing. They 
said if he let the Jews build up their cit-y, they would 
pay no tax-es to him. If he would ask, he would find out 
that the Jews in the old time gave much trou-ble. 

King Ar-tax-erx-es sent word that they might stop the 
Jews in build-ing the tem-ple. So the Jews went to work 




212 THE BIBLE STORY. 

and built fine hous-es to live in, and when there was a new 
king of Per-sia they did not try to find out if he would let 
them build the tem-ple. Then the Lord was not pleased 
with them, but sent word by Hag-ga-i that if they did not 
build His tem-ple at once He would not bless or help 
them. 

The Sa-mar-i-tans tried to stop them once more, but 
King Da-ri-us sent word to them to leave the Jews in 
peace. He made a law, too, that the Sa-mar-i-tans should 
pay a tax to the Jews to help them in their work. 

There was a good priest in Bab-y-lon named Ez-ra. He 
was a Jew, and he longed to go to his own peo-ple. He 
asked leave of the king to go, and God made the king so 
kind that he gave him rich gifts to take with him. The 
Jews who chose to do so went with him. 

He was in great m-ief when he heard that some of the 
prin-ces at Je-ru-sa-lem had wives who prayed to false 
gods. 

He wept and prayed to God for these men, and they 
came to him and said they would give up these wives, who 
might lead them to sin and leave the true God. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE STO-RY OF ES-THER. 



There were still some of the Jews in the land of Per-sia 
when A-has-u-e-rus was made king. He held a great feast 
in his fine pal-ace of Shu-shan, and the men drank wine 



THE BIBLE STORY. 213 

out of ves-sels of sil-ver and gold. On the sev-enth day 
he sent for Vash-ti, his queen, to show her to the prin-ces, 
for she was fair to look up-on. 

But Vash-ti would not go, and the king was an-gry. 
One of the wise men said no wo-man in Per-sia would 
o-bey her hus-band when she heard what the queen had 
done. I hen they told the king that he ought to make a 
law that Vash-ti should come no more to the king, and he 
must choose a new queen. So should each man rule in his 
own house. 

The king did as the wise man said. He sent word to 
all parts, of his land that the fair-est of the young girls 
should be sent for him to choose from. Now there was in 
the pal-ace a Jew named Mor-de-cai who had a fair young 
cous-in called Es-ther. It came to pass that Es-ther was 
brought with the rest of the girls, but no one knew she 
was a Jew-ess. 

When King A-has-u-e-rus saw Es-ther, he loved her 
more than the rest, and he put the crown on her head, and 
made her queen. Then he made a feast for her, and gave 
gifts to all in the house. 

Not long aft-er this Mor-dc-cai found out a plot to kill 
the king, and he made it known to Es-ther so that the 
men were hung. 

Now there was a man named Ha-man in the king's 
house who hated Mor-de-cai. He was a great man, and 
all bowed down to him but this Jew, and he made up his 
mind that he would make an end of him, and of all the 
Jews in the land. So he spoke to the king a-gainst the 



214 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Jews. He told him they had their own laws, and did not 
keep the king's laws. He said that if the king would 
make a law to kill all the Jews, he would pay him ten 
thou-sand tal-ents of sil-ver. 

The king heard him, and took a ring from his fin-ger 
and gave it to Ha-man. He meant that Ha-man might 
write what he chose and seal it with that ring. 

So Ha-man was glad, and wrote out a law that on a 
cer-tain day ev-er-y Jew, man, wo-man or child, in Per-sia 
should be killed. And the one who killed a Jew could 
take his house and lands and all he had for his own. 
Then he sent forth word of this law through all the land 
by means of let-ters sealed with the king's ring. 

When Mor-de-cai heard of this he rent his clothes, and 
put on sack-cloth, and went out in the streets to the king's 
gates and mourned there. And in all the land the Jews 
wept and cried. 

Now Oueen Es-ther had not heard of the law, but some 
one told her that Mor-de-cai was in sack-cloth, and that 
he cried in the streets. Es-ther was grieved, and sent to 
ask what was the mat-ter. Mor-de-cai told the man of 
Ha-man's wick-ed plot, and said that the queen ought to 
go to the king and beg for the lives of her peo-ple. 

Then the queen sent word that no one dared to go to 
the king whom he did not send for. If one went, and the 
king did not hold out his gold-en scep-tre, that one would 
be put to death. And she said the king had not sent for 
her for thir-tv davs. 

The man went and told Mor-de-cai. He sent word to 



THE BIBLE STORY. 2 i5 



the queen, " Do not think be-cause thou art queen that 
thou wilt be spared when all the Jews are killed. Who 
can tell but thou hast been made queen so as to save them." 

Then Es-ther sent word to Mor-de-cai that he must tell 
all the Jews to fast three days. She said she would fast 
too with her maid-ens, and then she would eo to the kine, 
and " If I die, I must die." 

So the third day Es-ther put on her rich robes, and 
went in and stood where the king could see her. God 
made him feel kind to her, and he held out his Qrold-en 
scep-tre and asked what was her wish. He said he 
would give it to her if it were the half of his king-dom. 

Then Es-ther asked the king to come with Ha-man to a 
feast at her house that day and he said they would come. 
Now the king knew that Es-ther had some fa-vor to ask, 
but she did not ask it that day. She begged the king to 
come to a feast on the next day. Ha-man's heart was 
proud that he should be asked once more by the queen. 
But still he could not be hap-py for Mor-de-cai did not 
bow to him in the gate. He told his wife how it galled 
him, and she said he must build a tall gal-lows, and beg 
the king to have Mor-de-cai hung on it. Then he could 
go and feast with the queen with a glad heart. 

That night the king could not sleep. He made his 
serv-ant brine the book in which was set down all that had 
hap-pened in his reign. The man read it to him, and then 
it told how Mor-de-cai had once saved the king's life. 

Then the king asked what had been done for Mor-de- 
cai, and the man said noth-ing had been done. Just then 



216 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Ha-man came in. He meant to ask the king to have 
Mor-de-cai hung on the gal-lows he had built. 

•The king asked him at once, "What shall be done for 
a man the king wants to hon-or?" 

Ha-man thought, " The king means me." So he said, 
" Let the king's robes and his crown be brought to him, 
and let him put them on, and let him ride on the king's 
horse, and let a prince lead it through the streets and cry, 
'Thus shall it be done to the man whom the kine; de-lig-hts 
to hon-or !' 

Then the king said, " Make haste, and take the crown 
and robes, and the horse, and do to Mor-de-cai, the Jew, 
as thou hast said." 

Ha-man did not dare say no to the king, so he took the 
king's robes and crown to Mor-de-cai, and set him on the 
king's horse, and led him through the streets as he had 
said. Then he went to his home in shame and ra^e. 

But he had to go to the feast of the queen that day 
with the kinor. When the kinp- asked Es-ther once more 
what was her wish she spoke out, " Let the king save my 
life, and the lives of all my peo-ple, the Jews. For e-vil 
things have been told the king that are not true, and we 
have been sold to be slain." 

Then the king asked, " Who is the man that dared to 
do these things?" and the queen said, " Ha-man." 

Ha-man fell down and begged for his life, but some one 
told the king that there was a tall gal-lows near, which 
Ha-man had built for Mor-de-cai. Then the king said, 
tl Hang him on it;" and it was done. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



217 




THE KING BIDS THAT HA-MAN BE HUNG. 



Then the king gave Es-ther Ha-man's house, and he 
sent for Mor-de-cai, and took off his ring- and gave it to 
him, and he let him make a new law and seal it with the 
rino-. This new let-ter said that the Jews had leave to 
slay all that came to harm them. So it came to pass that 
God made them strong on that day, and their foes lied 
from them. Then the Jews were full of joy, and kept a 
feast each year at that time. 



2i8 THE BIBLE STORY. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE PA-TIENT MAN. 

There was a man in the land of Uz named Job. He 
was a just and good man, and God had made him rich 
and great. He had sev-en sons and three daugh-ters. 

But the Lord sent tri-als to Job, to see if he would still 
love and serve him. He lost his nch-es and his chil-dren. 
One day a man came and told that rob-bers had sto-len 
his cat-tie, and killed his serv-ants. Then one told of fire 
from the sky that had burnt his sheep and those who took 
care of them. Then men stole his cam-els. 

But more sad than all, he heard that while his chil-dren 
feast-ed at one house, a great wind came and blew down 
the house so that all were killed. 

Job rent his clothes, and bowed down to the earth, and 
said, "I brought noth-ing in-to the world, and I shall take 
noth-ing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord has tak-en 
a-way; bless-ed be the name of the Lord." So Job did 
not sin or speak e-vil of God. 

Then God tried Job with a sore sick-ness. Boils came 
on him from his head to his feet. His wife came to him 
and said, " Curse God and die." 

But Job told her she was sin-ful. He said, "Shall we 
take good things from the hand of the Lord, and shall we 
not take e-vil things?" 

Now Job had three friends who came to see him. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



219 



They rent their clothes and wept when they saw him, he 
was so changed. At first they could not speak. They 
thought all his tri-als had been sent for his sins. They 
said at last, " If thou hast sinned, do so no more, and God 
will for-give and make thee well." 

Job knew he had done no wrong, so he said, " Let me 
a-lone. I did not send for you, and you do not com-fort 
me at all. The Lord hath sent great tri-als on me ; I 
would rath-er die than live. Yet I know that my Sa-viour 
liv-eth, and I shall rise up from my grave, and see God." 




ILL NEWS IS BROUGHT TO JOB. 



220 THE BIBLE SluRV. 

But the three friends kept on with their talk, as though 
he must have sinned, and that all his tri-als were sent for 
his sins. Job grew an-gry with them. 

Then a voice came to them out of a whirl-wind, and it 
was the voice of God. It spoke of all God's works, and 
asked if Job could do the least of them. 

Job bowed down to the earth, and asked God to for-give 
all his sins, and he prayed for the three friends too. 

Then the Lord healed Job, and blessed him, and made 
him twice as rich, and gave him more sons and daugh-ters, 
and he lived to be a ver-y old man. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



THE STO-RY OF JO-NAH. 



There was a great and wick-ed cit-y called Nin-e-veh 
in those days. It was full of grand hous-es, and gar-dens, 
and pal-a-ces. The walls were so wide that three char-i-ots 
could drive side by side on them, and had tow-ers where the 
guard could stand and shoot down ar-rows on their foes. 

Now God spoke to Jo-nah, and told him to go to Nin- 
e-veh and preach to the peo-ple of their sins. Jo-nah 
feared to go, and tried to hide from the Lord. 

He went on a ship at Jop-pa, but God sent a great 
storm and the crew were a-fraid. They prayed to their 
false gods, and threw out some of the car-go of the ship, 
so that it would not sink. Jo-nah was fast a-sleep, but they 
woke him and begged him to call on his God for help. 



THE BIBLE STORY. 221 

The men said there must be some one in the ship who 
had done some great sin, and they cast lots to find out 
who it might be. 

The lot fell on Jo-nah, and they said, "Tell us what sin 
thou hast done? Where art thou from?" 

And Jo-nah told the'm why he was there. Then they 
said, " What shall we do ? " 

Jo-nah said, "Cast me in the sea and it will be still, for 
it is for my sin the storm is sent." 

Then the men rowed hard and tried to bring the ship 
to land, but they could not. Then they prayed to Jo-nah's 
God that He would not count it sin for them if they cast 
him in the sea. 

So they took him and cast him in the sea, and it grew 
calm at once. From that time those men served the Lord. 

There was a great fish sent to swal-low Jo-nah, and he 
was in that fish three days and nights. Then he prayed 
to God, and was s'or-ry for his sin, and God heard him, 
and made the fish cast him out on dry land. 

Then the Lord told him once more to go to Nin-e-veh, 
and say to all what He had told him. So Jo-nah went 
and cried out in a loud voice, "After for-ty days Nin-e-veh 
shall fall for the sins of her peo-ple." 

When the king of Nin-e-veh heard this, he thought 
that it was true, and that the Lord had sent Jo-nah. He 
left his throne and took off his rich robes and put on 
sack-cloth. And he sent word to all his peo-ple that they 
must fast and pray. They must not eat, or drink, or wear 
fine clothes, but each one must put on sack-cloth, and ask 



222 



THE BIBLE STORY. 



God to for-give his sins. When God heard their pray-ers, 
He pit-ied them, and did not de-stroy the cit-y. 

Now Jo-nah was not pleased at this. He want-ed all 
these peo-ple killed be-cause he had preached that they 
would be. He thought they would laugh at him and call 
him a false proph-et. So he said to the Lord, " I knew 
thou wouldst not de-stroy the cit-y when I fled the first 
time. And now, O Lord, put me to death, for I would 
rath-er die than live." 




A VINE GROWS TO SHIELD JO-NAH FROM THE SUN. 

The Lord was still kind to Jo-nah. When he went out 
from Nin-e-veh and stopped near the cit-y, the Lord made 
a vine to grow up in one night and shield him from the 
hot sun. The next night a worm gnawed the root so the 



THE BIBLE STORY. 223 

vine died. Then once more he was not pleased and 
wished to die, for the sun beat on him and made him faint. 

Then God said, "Thou art an-gry that I killed the 
gourd that grew up in a night and died in a night, yet 
thou wouldst have me de-stroy Nin-e-veh, that great cit-y 
in which are ma-ny thou-sand lit-tle chil-dren so young 
they can not tell their right hands from their left." 

So the Lord showed Jo-nah how much in the wrong he 
had been to find fault with the ways of God. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

NE-HE-MI-AH. 

In the days when Ar-tax-erx-es was king of Per-sia, 
there was a Jew named Ne-he-mi-ah who served him with 
wine. Some men came to the court one day who told 
him of the state of ru-in that Je-ru-sa-lem was in, with its 
walls down, and the gates Iy-ing on the ground. 

Ne-he-mi-ah wept at the thought of this. The king 
saw how sad he looked when he gave him the cup of wine, 
and he asked him the cause of his grief. When Ne-he- 
mi-ah told him, the king said, "What dost thou ask of me?" 

Ne-he-mi-ah prayed to God in his heart that He would 
make the king grant his wish, and then he said, ' I pray 
thee send me to Je-ru-sa-lem that I may build up its walls." 

The Lord made the king let Ne-he-mi-ah go, and he 
sent a guard with him, and let-ters to the head men through 
the land to help him. 



224 THE BIBLE STORY. 

Now there were two of the head men, San-bal-lat and 
To-bi-ah, who did not like what the king had done, and 
when Ne-he-mi-ah had set the Jews to work to build up 
the walls, they laid a plot to come and kill them while, they 
worked. But the Jews heard of this, and while half of 
them worked, the oth-ers kept watch, and e-ven those who 
worked had their swords and shields near them. 

Soon the walls were built so far that the foes feared to 
come to Je-ru-sa-lem. Then they sent word that it was 
said Ne-he-mi-ah meant to be king of the Jews, and that 
the kmor f Per-sia should hear of it if Ne-he-mi-ah did 
not come and talk to them. They meant to kill him if he 
came to them, but Ne-he-mi-ah would not go. 

At last the walls and gates were built, and the peo-ple 
gave them to the Lord to be His for all time, and they 
made a feast with great joy. 

Ne-he-mi-ah went to Per-sia for a while, and when he 
came back from there he found that the peo-ple had not 
kept their vows to the Lord. They had made friends with 
the hea-then and had tak-en wives from them. They had 
not brought a tenth of their grain and fruits to the Le- 
vites, so that the Le-vites had to give up the works of the 
tem-ple that they might raise grain for food. 

Ne-he-mi-ah was grieved, and he called the priests and 
Le-vites back to the tem-ple. Pie saw men at work on 
the Sab-bath day, and he told them that God had pun-ished 
the Jews of old for such sins. He said the gates of the 
cit-y must be shut till the Sab-bath was o-ver. 






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